Lee Sowden

mcfodder @ 2009-11-01T20:57:00

2009-11-01T12:58:13Z

First post in almost ever. And it's just to say - Xaff! E-mail me or somethin.

Long standing debt...

2007-01-19T01:32:03Z

People who used to go to the skate park with me:

I think we still owe Graeme beer and icecream for dropping into the half pipe.

If enough of the old crew show interest, I shall host a beer and icecream party at some point in the future, in Graeme's honour.

Or, we could just do it at the housewarming party I'm going to make him have soon.

THOUGHTS?

mcfodder @ 2006-10-13T01:05:00

2006-10-13T01:18:13Z

So, went to Darwin over the (extended) weekend for the indoor beach volleyball national championships.

Flew out on thursday morning, eventually - flight was delayed for an hour by someone who had apparently taken 3 valium before the flight and was currently out of their head space. Eventually organised a room at the hotel since it had been underbooked, Anita and I ended up with a room to ourselves instead of a dorm room for not too much more so it worked out okay.

Went to Crocidylus Park, or however it's spelt, on friday - was pretty cool, not just crocs but also lions, tigers, wombats, monkeys and stuff. Like a mini zoo.

Started playing games friday night and didn't do much else until sunday night - volleyball interspersed with lazing by the pool and drinking, was lots of fun.

And my team and I emerged as NATIONAL FUCKING CHAMPIONS.

Seriously, we just played unbelievably well as a team. I don't think any one of us had an off game, or even an average game. Scotty did his normal amazing pickups but even better, Marie set us up really well, Abby's backing up was great, Toggs was mixing things up nicely and Ness just owned. She played her first year of superleague (the state comp) this year in ladies division 3, and here she is at nationals showing the guys how to hit from the back court.

We won all our pool games (mixed comp was split into 2 pools of 10), most of them were reasonably easy except for 2 against darwin teams that we only won by 2 points each. Finals came around and all the teams seemed to pick up their game a bit, we played against the 8th placed team from the other pool first up and they were going right with us for a while when we were expecting an easy game. Second final was another darwin team I think? I don't remember much. 3rd final we played against Hobart, who were going really well after a dodgy start to the weekend, but we outran them in the end because we were their second game straight, and it was HOT. In the grand final we came up against a Kalgoorlie team who had looked really good, but we attacked them from the start and were up 9-1 in the first few minutes and they just never got their shit together after that.

We win!

Anita's team didn't do as well as they could have, they lost a few games in their pool and finished 5th in there, then lost their first final by 1 point :( If they'd made it through I think they were just coming into their game, could have done really well. (Finals were all elimination too, so even though my team finished first if we'd dropped one game we were out.)

So anyway, next year the national championships will be in brisbane, looking like the weekend between bathurst and indy, so might need to make a few weeks of it when we go defend our title :)

National Champions, booyah!

Gotta run to the chiro now, might upload some photos when I get back.

Oh yeah, Graeme did a nude run around the hotel for cash!

mcfodder @ 2006-06-14T12:41:00

2006-06-14T04:48:02Z

So, Jess and I have split up...

It has surprised a lot of people, though I have to say I'm not one of them. It seems like the common goal of our england trip was keeping us together, and once that was over we kind of grew apart, to the point where when Jess asked if I was 100% sure I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her I couldn't give her the answer she wanted to hear.

So she asked me to move out, and I did. She's since asked me to move back, but in the long run I think I'd only end up causing more pain.

Life goes on, I actually feel a bit guilty about how bad I'm not feeling. Work continues as normal, as does volleyball (well, almost - Jess isn't there anymore, she doesn't want to see me) and I've had the help of some good friends to talk when I need to and give me space when I need that.

If you need to contact me for anything and don't have my mobile number (yeah, I finally got one a few months ago) leave a message here and I'll text it to you.

mcfodder @ 2006-05-20T18:44:00

2006-05-20T10:48:15Z

Finally got the CDs of the photos I'd downloaded onto my sister's computer in england, so been looking through those. A few places I took photos to stitch into panoramas, so I did that.

This is the 3 of them together, would like to get them printed if it's not going to cost a hideous amount.

Not much other excitement really.

mcfodder @ 2006-04-18T21:44:00

2006-04-18T13:48:34Z

Okay, majorish news - I have a new car!

And I LIKE this one!

It goes pretty fast, and around corners, and doesn't crunch on bumps. Also, the last 3 digits of the engine number are 666, and a friend said it looks beasty, so it's now nicknamed the beast.

Also, a meme I stole from people that I probably won't look at ever again!

1. I'll respond with something random I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll name something we should do together.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
or, I will include an icon just for YOU in my reply)
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.

Have fun!

mcfodder @ 2006-03-27T22:19:00

2006-03-27T14:48:40Z

Since I'm too slack to do a real run-down on what we got up to in England...here's copies of the e-mails we sent to family and friends while we were gone. Name-dropping of places that people have never heard of was so Jess's mum and anyone else who felt inclined could look up where we'd been.

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(Sent Monday night)

Heya!

Here we are in merry england, end of our second day here - we got in about 6am yesterday morning and had a pretty quiet day, feeling good today after a good night's sleep though. Trip was for the most part pretty good, first plane we were on was a bit flasher than the second, so it's a shame that was the shorter flight!

Haven't done a lot so far, mostly catching up with Tam and Fin, who's even cuter than we remember. Had a bit of a tour of bristol, saw the suspension bridge and the camera obscura tower thingy, and went up to the downs - which sounds really wrong when you say it, but it's a grassy park area up the top of a hill, so it's up - it's just the name that's stupid.

Heading down to Bath tomorrow, taking the bus or train - haven't decided yet - so it should be our first 'solo' adventure. Weather is predicted to be a max of 10 degrees, same as today, so we'll make sure we rug up. At least it hasn't rained much at all since we arrived, it was fairly bucketing as we left the airport and came in along the motorway but cleared up as we arrived in bristol and has just been overcast with a bit of breeze since.

Probably be hearing from us soon,
Us

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(Wednesday night)

Hey folks!

Quiet-ish day today, went for a bit more of a walk around bristol. The seagulls here are about twice the size of the ones at home. Got some good views from the top of some tower on a hill, probably the steepest and narrowest staircase we've ever been though.

Bath yesterday was great, got some really good photos. Weather was pretty good for the most part, with only a few spots of rain and us wishing we had sunglasses for the most part! Admittedly the glare wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been reflecting off damp cobblestones, but it was sunny so we were happy. Went on a few double-decker open-top bus tours - one around the city, and one that took us out to the outskirts, the university and such - both were pretty good and only got slightly damp. The roman baths themselves were pretty cool - amazing to think the lead piping put in over 1500 years ago is still going strong.

Hopefully got a dry-slope skiing lesson tomorrow to let us get to grips with the basics before we hit the slopes for real in a week and a half - also checking out some cottage a bit out of town as well I think.

Cheers!
Us

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(Thursday night)

Heya - today was pretty unexciting but thought we'd fill you in :)

Didn't end up booking the dry slope lesson for today, we're doing that early next week instead.

Visited the 'prettiest village in England', Castle Combe - even though it doesn't have a castle.

Also booked accomodation for our nights in london - we'll be there wed / thurs / fri next week, and are staying at the Generator hostel there - cheap, but hopefully not too nasty!

We decided to hire a car - was only going to be for one day but the place Tam rang had a good deal for over the weekend - only £60 to pick it up lunchtime tomorrow (friday) and drop it off some time monday morning, so we'll be hopefully doing a bit of a sea-side journey on saturday and hitting the cotswolds (supposedly very scenic villages) on sunday to give Tam and Rog a bit of time without us pesky aussies.

Today got up to 9 degrees after freezing overnight (the car said so). The end of the week is supposed to be 'more wintery' so it could get interesting indeed. Hope the weather there isn't too uncomfortably hot.

Cheers
Us

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(Monday night, second week)

Hey people,

Well, had a pretty big weekend. Picked up our hire car on friday, so took it for a 'test run' out towards Wells on friday afternoon. Didn't make it all the way due to a diversion on the main road, but did a little loop out around Midsomer Norton, Oakhill and may or may not have made it as far as Shepton Mallet - we didn't take a lot of notice of village names, just the scenery.

Saturday we took off towards the 'seaside' - even the locals don't try and pass them off as beaches. We went down through Glastonbury - went up the tor, was an amazing view - to Lyme Regis where we grabbed some chips for lunch, then along to the fantastically named village of Beer - beautiful cliffs and a nice pebble beach. Went to Sidmouth in the dying light - was nice there as well, then found our way home with a minimum of confusion, even though the headlights on our hire car were pretty dismal.

Sunday we hit the Cotswolds, an area full of quaint little villages that was really pretty - all very green and lush. Almost every building would be the sort of thing that would stand out in Australia as being old. We went through Bourton-on-the-water, which was very scenic. Stopped there for a wander through some shops, checked out the model village (updated regularly, apparently) and then went through a maze - I didn't think it was going to be great since it was in such a small area, but it was good fun - well and truly enough space to get confused. Solved the puzzle from clues around the place and managed to find the golden dragonfly. We could tell you how, but then we'd have to kill you. Drove on through Stow-on-the-Wold to Chipping Norton for a pub lunch, then back down through Burford and Bibury.

Today Roger's sister Cat picked us up (we had to drop the hire car back this morning) and we tootled off to check out Wales - it's absolutely gorgeous. Had a really nice drive through Abergavenny (which is amazingly the most pronounceable place we went through all day) up to - wait for it - Lord Hereford's Knob in the Black Mountains. Funny, they seemed more greenish. Bad puns aside, it was freezing up there - when we first arrived it was 3 degrees at the airport, so I walked out in shirt and shorts to see how it felt. Today I was in leggings, long pants, singlet, long sleeve shirt, jumper, scarf, beanie and wool gloves and felt a lot colder. Went up to Hay-on-Wye for lunch at a pub (again), then went back the way we'd come, due to a lack of any other minor roads going the direction we wanted. Didn't really matter, the weather had changed enough that everything looked different - it even snowed ever so slightly while we were back up near Lord Hereford's Knob (hee hee).

Tomorrow we're going to go watch Fin at his swimming lessons - apparently he's the star performer in his class. We've got a dry slope skiing lesson booked for the afternoon, that should be interesting to say the least :) Might get a bit of shopping done in Bristol after that if we find the time.

Missing the warm weather (and you guys),
Us

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(Wednesday night, week 2)

Only a short update today, we didn't do a lot - had an early start to get the bus into london - over half the time of our flight to singapore, and no in-transit entertainment whatsoever!

Booked into our hostel, and did a bus tour and a bit - got all you can eat pizza for tea, took some photos at trafalgar square (best of the red street, yeah!) then caught the tube back to the hostel.

Heading up and around on the London Eye tomorrow, should give us a new perspective on things :)

Us

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(Saturday night I think, e-mail by Jess so don't blame me for grammar, spelling or capitalisation :P)

well the trip to london was good, nothing special but. The hostel was ok, but we didn't spend much time there, just slept there.

The underground was abit daunting to start with but as we used it more, it became very easy. But rush hour on our way home was a suprise, many many people.

We did the open top bus tours, there were 3 different tours all up. But once you'd seen a few of the sites, they all get the same, pay your money, walk around, take photos if you can, it got a bit boring towards the end. But happy that we saw them all.

It was raining alittle when we went on the London Eye, so wasn't as clear a veiw as we had hoped for but still good anyway.

It snowed a tiny bit more for us when we were there, thats about when we decided to move from the top level of the bus to the undercover level.

Tomorrow we're off sking, alll very excited and alittle scared. Mostly of falling over at the chair lifts where either everyone can see that you've fallen or fall so that your in everyone's way. But oh well, they can just deal with it.

Went shopping today for thermals and ski socks because we're told to expect a max temp of about 4 and a wind chill factor of about -21. Freezing cold, here we come.

May or may not be able to e-mail why'll we're sking so you'll hear from us in about a week.

Love Us.

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And there ended the e-mail correspondence. Skiing was a lot of fun, we did all the stuff like make a snowman, have snowball fights, made snow angels and of course stacked it face first into the snow while skiing. That last one several times, just to make sure we got it right. Really. Fin enjoyed his tobogganing, we had fun skiing, Corey (an old friend of my sister's who joined us) battered his body around a lot snowboarding. Our class only had 2 other english speakers, so we got to be good friends with them while also trying to understand the natives - I guess gesticulating wildly and saying 'Zoom, zoom!' is pretty much the same in any language.

Went back to england for about a day and a half, did a tour around Windsor Castle. Wasn't bad. Had lunch in a really nice thai restaurant. Saw the sights of Marlowe, had Roger's Dad take us for a drive in his little Alfa Romeo. Was nice. Flew out to Singapore....

....which was full on. We arrived at the airport around 8 or 9am, went and checked in to the hotel, then went out shopping. By the time we got back to bed around 11pm our day had been about 25 hours long, so we had a bit of a sleep in, did some more shopping. Got trundled all over the city by a bus driver who said yes, this bus does go by Hotel Miramar, then got to the end of the line and informed us he had no idea where we wanted to go. That sucked. Decided to stick to the MRT (mass rail transit, very similar to the tube in London) after that, although we also went on a tri-shaw once. Went out again that night, around Clarke Quay, which was a touristy area but seemed really cool. Did a reverse bungy. Jess screamed lots, I laughed. We've got it on DVD - very funny to watch. Got back to bed around 2.

Up at 6 to get out to the zoo in time for breakfast with the animals! The zoo was pretty cool, though I imagine zoos everywhere are much the same. Got some decent photos of some of the animals. I got dragged into a coconut husking competition against an orangutan. Emerged victorious! Strength of four men: maybe. Attention span of a 3 year old: definitely. It's not often I'm the more motivated one. Found that nowhere in the damn place would take a credit card, and there were no cash machines to be found. Eventually realised that Ben and Jerry's outside DID accept credit cards, so we chowed down on icecreams, smoothies, bought some soft drinks and water for later and generally stocked up. Moved across to the Night Safari place next to the zoo, caught some cool Borneo dancer people doing a show. Went back and watched it again later and Jess got dragged up on stage to get involved - she put a fire stick thing into a guy's mouth, and then they threatened to put it in hers. Sadly, she lost the nipple dance-off. Night Safari in general was okay, but not as good as we expected. Discovered otters are noisy bastards when they want to be fed. Saw and heard a couple of wolves howling - that was one of the highlights of the night, such a soulful sound.

Got home around 1:30, almost 2:30 by the time we were packed up - had to pack up that night because....

....up at 6 the next morning to get taken to the airport. Feeling somewhat seedy by this point, but survived. Had a bunch of singaporean schoolgirls around us on the flight home, most of whom had obviously never flown before - the collective 'aaaaaaaAAAAAAH' as we took off was a bit of a giveaway, as were the white knuckles any time we hit some turbulence. Matt picked us up, came home, got ready for bed.

Was going to give Graeme a ring just to let him know we were back - found out he and a bunch of the crew had gone out for tea for some people's birthdays, told them to drop around afterwards for a bit if they felt like it. Then they did, and then we found out some other people were going into town, and so we went and met up with them. Not the sanest thing to do after the amount of sleep we hadn't had in the last few days, but it was damn good to see people again.

Since then...gone back to work, the store is now open (K-mart, if I haven't mentioned it before), that all seems okay. Had superleague the weekend after we got back, I'm playing mens 2 this year and we won 7 and drew 1 out of 8 games - had a ball doing it, so we're all happy. Jess's team won 5 of their 8, so not too shabby either.

That's really about it. Long update for me, but stuff actually happened, so don't expect this to be the norm, in case you were scared of that happening :P

I RETURN

2006-03-12T05:24:08Z

We're home again! Holiday was awesome. I promise a real update soon.

mcfodder @ 2006-02-01T21:58:00

2006-02-01T14:17:20Z

Which File Extension are You?

Since that's a really lame excuse to break a posting drought, I should probably say some stuff. This will most likely be in reverse chronological order, kinda.

10 days until we fly out! Almost 9 now. GLEE!

Got some good firework photos at the australia day thing in town, but I haven't uploaded them yet, and most firework photos look mostly the same anyway. Had a good aussie day barbecue, despite the winner of the JJJ hottest 100 being almost universally booed. Most of the people we like came over, including Pittsy and Karinda down from Perth. Decided between getting food and getting home that we'd head up to their place for the weekend (Jess and I both had friday off after australia day on the thursday, so had 3 days left AFTER the barbie. So australian.) We were 15 minutes behind some cars that were involved in a triple fatality crash, which was a bummer. Saw lots of flashy lights but had to move because the helicopter was coming in and find another way through, so took about an extra hour. Which sucked for Pittsy, because he was meant to start work at 4am and we didn't get him home until after 1.

Been working at the K-mart that will be opening here soon, helping get the stock in and everything set up. It's been okay, but the day drags a lot when you spend 10 minutes doing something then 15 minutes walking around looking for someone to give you something else to do, or find something to do yourself. Gonna miss the opening week and a half, so should miss most of the drama :P. Will be working 20 hours a week in the sound and vision department with tvs, stereos and consoles and the like, and 10 hours in the minilab. Anita (my manager from kevron, and friend from volleyball) got the full time minilab job, so she's happy too. Seem like all other good people there too. Should be good.

Christmas and new year's eve were good fun, all pretty relaxed - at that point I was still unemployed (but hopeful) and Jess had the week off, so there was lots of beach cricket / park cricket / booting a soccer ball around and stuff like that. We made pinatas for new year's eve, turned out to be the perfect amount for one each. Main problem was that we couldn't work out how to hang them, so we just threw them to the blindfolded person with the cricket bat.

I had something else to say, but forget what it was.

Oh yeah, superleague this year could be pretty lame, we've got a bunch of outdoor beach players in our mens div 1 team, so they might do okay, but no one is really going to care. Jess is stuck in ladies 3 again, I'm gonna be in mens 2 by the looks of it in a team that may or may not suck.

Think that's about it.

Crap, just looked at how long ago my last post was. The world record thing was really good fun, wasn't difficult at all and we reached the 52 hour mark with only a few people in pain. We're still waiting to hear whether or not we have the offical 'Guinness World Record', since there's a lot of paperwork and shit to go through. That all got sent off early december, apparently did a tour of australia for 4 weeks before taking the slow boat to england, despite being paid to go express air post. Probably gonna be like 5 weeks more before we find out. Hopefully we get it then someone beats us so we can do it again.

That's it, for real for real!

You're such an inspiration for the way that I would never ever choose to be

mcfodder @ 2005-10-26T16:10:00

2005-10-26T08:15:28Z

Not a lot has been happening really; the usual work, volleyball, sleep stuff, with a bit of warcraft thrown in wherever I can make it fit. Went up to Perth on monday with Jase (of Amber and Jase) to look at some of the cars I've been thinking of getting when I can afford it, and after taking one for a test drive I'm fairly set on a celica GT-4 (89-90ish). Love the look, goes nice and smoothly, doesn't lack for power, and all-wheel drive - about the only thing not to like about it is the fact it's not driftable, but I can't have everything :P. Will be looking at getting one hopefully not too long after we get back from england in march, provided I've got a decent job by that point, since my current one is giving me way too few hours.

Got a world record attempt coming up in november, at volleyball we're going for a 52-hour continuous game - starting 8am on friday, finishing at lunch time on sunday. 12 people per team, 6 on court at any one time, and no one is allowed to leave the centre for more than 5 minutes. Gonna be fun, but tough - not sure everyone involved realises how tough it'll be, but we'll see what happens.

Currently listening compulsively to the song Tangled Up In Blue, as covered by The Whitlams. It's always been my favourite song off Eternal Nightcap, not sure why I suddenly want to hear it so much.

Reader question - what's your favourite cover version of any song? I need new stuff to listen to :)

mcfodder @ 2005-09-10T18:24:00

2005-09-10T10:31:12Z

Oh yeah, I have a niece now! Poppy Jai Sowden, who Brett's Jess gave birth to (rather quickly) on Monday.

And just so I'm not playing favourites, here's a somewhat played with photo of my nephew, who's now just over 5 months old.

Yeah, I know, it's corny as hell, but he was perfectly posed for it :P I should give him some bling-bling too, but I gotta head out in a bit.

mcfodder @ 2005-09-06T14:43:00

2005-09-06T06:46:41Z

So, I've currently got a very nice guy by the name of Jack on the phone. He sounds a bit Indian, which is funny, because I don't know many, but amazingly, our phone number has been drawn out as someone to receive a brand new nokia mobile, no charge up front!

I told him I had to get the door, I'd be right back, and put the phone down.

It's been....12 and a half minutes so far. I figure while he's calling me he's not pissing anyone else off. Let's see how long he waits for.

Oh yeah, no other news.

Some....interesting....weather

2005-05-17T00:27:24Z

Apparently we had some small tornadoes come through town yesterday morning around 6:30. Ouch :/ This was / is the train station, where the tornado came through about 15 minutes after people boarded the train and left.

Jess's Mum's backyard.

This car dealership estimated the damage to stock and buildings at over $2M.

mcfodder @ 2005-03-18T09:20:00

2005-03-18T01:34:30Z

As usual, not much has happened. Until yesterday, when I got bitten by a redback spider four times. I recommend against it, it kinda hurt (eventually - first it itched, then it got hot, then it hurt).

Came home from work (home currently being mum and dad's place, where Jess and I are housesitting while they're in england), got changed and was driving to Matt's place when my chest started itching, I figured it was just grass seeds or something in my singlet that hadn't come out in the wash. Then I found the spider, must have been hiding in my shirt when I put it on. Teeniest redback I've ever seen too, not that I've seen a lot, but at first I thought it was an ant. Looked close enough to a redback to get me worried though, so I went down to the hospital, they decided it WAS a redback (more from the bites than from the spider - did YOU know that only redback bites come up with a ring of sweat around them? Yes, I know, ewww) so gave me some pills and asked if I wanted the antivenom. At this point the pain was bearable, and I only had mild nausea, so I was just going to deal with it, then they told me the effects generally got about 4 times worse after 3 hours or so, and last 2-4 days. I asked for antivenom at that point :P They kept me around, no ill effects from it (some people have a bad reaction) and I went home. Excitement plus. Actually, most of the three hours there, I was really bored, but this is the adventure that is my life.

Other news: as mentioned, we're housesitting at my old family home for 6 weeks or so. Work has been really quiet. Graeme and I have been playing outdoor beach volleyball. Oh, and superleague starts for indoor beach volleyball this weekend; amazingly, after however many years of just being called 'Bunbury', this year we're known as the Bunbury Redbacks XD. Sometimes life can be pretty damn funny.

Oh, and for any overseas readers: no, getting bitten by spiders doesn't happen often over here, I'm the only person I know of who's been bitten by a venomous beastie that I can remember :P. OUR ROCKS AREN'T POISONOUS!

The end.

Now slacker than ever! Almost

2005-02-08T15:10:19Z

Some stuff happened!

Like, hrm. Christmas!

It was kinda lame, we were going up to Perth to visit Adam and Anja when my car decided it didn't want to make it, and kept just stopping (well, it kept rolling for a bit, but had no power). Did this several times before we turned around, and did it more often on the way back, so it was a slooow trip back to mandurah where we left it. Has miraculously been fine since though.

Then it got broken into about 3 days later! Bastards stole my stereo which I paid like $750 for last year, CD collection *sobs* (around 80 CDs, probably 70% burnt copies but some of them will be a pain to get again), and some other random stuff we had in the car, like an esky, folding chairs, and the funky ass folding table my uncle made me for christmas. Since then he's given me another one, so it's not as bad, but I'm badly missing my stereo and CDs :/

Umm, next was New Years, had a barbie here, went into town afterwards, was okay.

My sister came over from england, along with her husband. Was good to see them again, but they've gone home now.

At volleyball, my teams took out the finals for what are probably the 2 main leagues, the mens division 1 and the 4-a-side competitions. Not so much luck with my mixed teams, but still good, as the two we won were the ones with cash prizes :)

Another win was in that photo competition I mentioned back in november or so, where I had the two photos in the finals. The judges liked another one better obviously, but one of my photos (this one) took out the People's Choice award, netting me another $500. Whee! As much as I'd like to spend it on random stuff (or should probably spend on getting my car looked at) it's going into the england fund, for our trip in february next year.

Found that out on australia day, which I spent out at Graeme's place - was good fun, came into town to watch the fireworks afterwards and it was actually a really good show, got some nice photos.

I think that pretty much brings stuff up to date.

Oh, except World of Warcraft has stolen my soul. Got a tauren druid on the daggerspine server. Die alliance dogs!

mcfodder @ 2004-12-13T17:20:00

2004-12-13T09:29:49Z

Some more shots from the last week or so.

Longish exposure at a local beach, the waves come out nicely as a fog effect. Makes me want a neutral density filter.

More fun with long exposures at a lookout.

Decent sunset while walking dogs with friends.

A few more updates at my main gallery.

mcfodder @ 2004-12-04T11:07:00

2004-12-04T03:21:20Z

Had a good night last night; went out to watch Butterfingers live, which was pretty awesome. Great show, even if they didn't play one of Jess and I's favourite songs off their CD. Support act by the name of Derelict was pretty cool also, some good hip-hop with beat-boxing. They coulda changed their songs up a bit more, but I was generally impressed. They were only young guys too, from down south somewhere. Will be keeping an eye out for if they get a CD made up. Fractured sentences for teh win.

Went around to Amber and Jase's place afterwards, watched Welcome to the Jungle - that movie with The Rock and Sean William Scott. Very funny, but given that it was 3am by the time it finished I wasn't shocked to be the only one awake by the end of it.

Oh, went to the opening of this Quintessential Bunbury photo competition exhibition thingy last night, they actually had every entry (about 200) on display which was nice, even if you had to hunt around to find where they'd stashed some of them. Some very nice photos both in and out of the 30 finalists, made me realise maybe my photos aren't terrible. Shaz from work also has a photo in the finals, as does the father of my best friend all through primary school. Was cool to look at anyway, I'd urge anyone bored in Bunbury to head down to the dolphin discovery centre and check it out. And vote for my photos :P

Not much else been happening, mainly just work, which has been going pretty well still.

I've got the hook up that always comes through;
Gotta stay connected to the mad, mad crew

mcfodder @ 2004-11-23T22:00:00

2004-11-23T14:20:32Z

Changed where I host my photos again. For anyone (anyone?) interested, have a look here.

Did the usual friday night thing, a gathering with Amber and Jase, Richie and Nita, at Richie and Nita's place. Had a barbecue with basically the same people saturday night, but at our place. Jess was happy, we dumped Matt's dog at Mrs. Boorman's place for the night, we had Zeek here and Amber brought Bailey (their flatcoat retriever) around to visit. They ended up staying the night, Jase came around when he knocked off work about 9am the next day. Took the dogs for a walk up the bush, Bailey likes the pond.

I'm tired and (more importantly) this stuff isn't that interesting, so I'll leave it there.

Iiiiiiiiiiiiii want you
To sit on my lap and do sweet things like we used to do

mcfodder @ 2004-11-18T14:19:00

2004-11-18T06:34:58Z

I win at life!

Well, kinda.

Started working casually at the Photo Kevron at Bunbury Forum early last month, this week I got moved up to part time (30 hours a week, yay!). That's going pretty well, everyone there is cool and I like selling people cameras (and playing with the new ones that come in).

Yesterday was my birthday; I'm 23 now. Really this time. I got a nice necklace and some singlets from Jess, money from my mum and dad since they know I'm trying to catch up on saving for the england trip, and a robosapien from Jess's mum. Tis awesome.

And today I found out that 2 of my entries into a local photo competition have been selected into the top 30 finalists. They'll go on display at the Dolphin Discovery Centre from the start of December until the end of January, with the winners being announced on Australia Day (Jan 26th for those non-aussies who may read, although I'm not sure why I'm bothering mentioning that since the information is beyond useless to them). And then my photos go to live in Japan! since the photo competition was to do with some sister city thing with Setagaya. We have some of their photos now I think, I went and had a look at them a while ago.

That's pretty much all that's been going on, mostly in the realm of 'Cool' to 'Sweet!', so life is good.

Every time I drive a car a cop will pull me over
But I say I'm someone else...and that I'm sober

Boredom!

2004-10-16T12:33:39Z

I'm sitting here at almost 8:30pm on a saturday night. Jess has been feeling under the weather, and is so already in bed and, last I saw, asleep. 'Crocodile Dundee' is on TV, with the great choice of 'The Parent Trap' on the other channel. I have plentiful episodes of Invader Zim and Tripping the Rift sitting on the hard drive that I haven't watched yet, but somehow that just doesn't seem like my ideal saturday night.

Graeme is probably working on assignments, and if he isn't he probably damn well should be. There's not really anyone else who's place I'd feel comfortable inviting myself over locally anymore - too many people have moved to Perth dagnabbit. Sure, there are people we do stuff with, Nita and Richie, Dan and Linda, Amber and Jase, but no one that (I am/we are) really close to any more.

No one on Messenger/ AIM, finally remembered I have ICQ as well - a few people on, but mostly away, and the only one who isn't is another Perthite.

I need entertainment damnit! I want to be out doing something after doing nothing pretty much all day.

mcfodder @ 2004-10-05T13:06:00

2004-10-05T05:32:45Z

Warning: What follows is a long and detailed account of lots of volleyball. Feel free to get bored and it all!

Had a good long weekend, played hardcourt volleyball for the first time - Richie, the guy who runs the indoor beach v/ball centre down here, paid for a team of us to have a go in a local tournament. One of us had played 2 games of hardcourt before, the rest of us were total newbies to that particular variant of the game, if it can be called a variant when I'm pretty sure it was the original.

First game we played was at 8am on saturday, against a team that had a few indoor beach players in it, so there was some friendly rivalry there, we were up for part of the first set but ended up losing 3-0, running out of time in the third set (longest sentence EVAR...almost). Second game wasn't until 2pm, and wasn't so pretty, we got flogged in the first set, the second was much more respectable (went down 25-22 I think), and we were doing pretty well in the third when again time ran out. Third team we played was against some people from Busselton, we took the first set fairly convincingly from memory (note: memory often lies), then just managed to take the second, flogged them in the third (not that it mattered, since only the first 2 count unless it's 1-1 at that point), which ended the first day. At this point we were on 2 losses and 1 win, with a pretty lousy percentage of about 45% while the other teams in contention had 53%+, so we knew we'd need to do a lot better the next day if we wanted a chance at the finals.

Sunday we played a team from catholic college first up. We took the first 2 sets very quickly, finished the third with 25 minutes (of 45) remaining so had a hit around with them to kill time. I think they made it to double figures in 3 or 4 sets over the weekend, but at least they kept playing. Nice little percentage booster, I think they made 7 and 5 points in the first and second sets respectively.

Then we played The Dusty Brown Show, a team of fairly young guys with good skills but no real spikers. They'd beaten the first team that beat us, so we knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we actually did it pretty convincingly, held them to about 8 points in the first set, winning the second 25-20(ish). We weren't sure if we'd done enough, but we'd all played pretty well and had a good weekend.

Then they put the results up, and we'd finished on equal points as the first team we played (with the other indoor beach players)at 3 wins and 2 losses each, so it came down to percentage. They had 52%, we were on 52.55%. Wooooo!

Looking through the fixtures we worked out whoever lost the first semi then had to umpire another game, so we found our motivation - we didn't want to win the whole thing, just wanted to get in to the grand final to make sure we didn't need to umpire again. We took the first set 25-24 (phew), got creamed in the second 25-11 or so, and with a few seconds left to play in the third we were up by a point. I THINK what happened next was that Big Jase had a spike, they blocked it, Jase blocked the block, they hit it back over and it went out. They all say it 'obviously' hit Jase so it should have been their point, but given that Jase didn't feel it hit him and the umpire, standing about a foot away, didn't see it, it can't have been THAT obvious. None of us thought it hit him, we were happy winning, including Graeme letting out quite a loud cry of 'We don't have to umpire! WOOOO!' Much rejoicing. Oh, highlight of that game was the other Jason on our team (Hat Jase, who helps run the centre with Richie) standing at the front net part way through the game telling the three guys on their team at the front 'This is your game, and you suck at it!'. He always did like a bit of confrontation ;)

Final was...ugly, we basically were outplayed pretty badly, but they were beach volleyballers from Albany, so we were just happy a hardcourt team didn't win ;). Went down 3-0, but I still consider the weekend to be a pretty fair effort for a bunch of newbies. Oh, and Hat Jase almost smacked Cressy, the tournament organiser who was on the team we narrowly beat out of the finals. Good times.

My voice and upper legs are now fecked.

Hardcourt was fun, the nets are a few inches higher than we're used to, but jumping off a solid floor instead of sand makes it much easier to get above it. Said solid floor is a little less conducive to diving however, and having to actually judge if the ball was going in or not was a bit different for us. Oh, and the court seemed massive, combined with the heavier ball my first serve barely hit the bottom of the net, I ended up basically smacking it as hard as I could and it still went in, only had a few go long all day.

I think I've bored you all enough.

I know what no one will ever know;
Where the flowers go when they are gone

mcfodder @ 2004-09-27T15:21:00

2004-09-27T07:29:50Z

Some more photos of Graeme's car, as requested by Boorman.

In other news.....hahahaha. Oh, you were serious?

Had some training for my new job at Photo Kevron at the Bunbury Forum, working for a good friend from volleyball by the name of Anita(saurus). Still enjoying taking lots of photos. Quite broke at the moment. Didn't win the men's volleyball final. Playing some hardcourt this weekend coming up, could be interesting and quite, quite bad, especially if I don't remember not to dive. Or try and hit the ball, or anything.

That's about it.

You stopped us from killing each other.
You'll never know but you saved our lives.

mcfodder @ 2004-09-10T14:01:00

2004-09-10T06:03:33Z

Couple of *very* cool flash animations.

One and two.

mcfodder @ 2004-09-07T11:54:00

2004-09-07T03:59:45Z

LJ Battle Royale! by monmonito

Username

Weapon you got:

Boxing gloves

Your goal in the game:

To kill the beautiful.

Number of students killed:

For fun, you kill:

bunnoluke

Out of a personal vendetta, you kill:

mcfodder

Accidentally, you kill:

katarski

You have an alliance with:

katarski

You develop a puppy-love romance with:

tancred

Watch out for:

shadevalk

Percentage of survival possibility:: 42%

Dying words:

"Down with the system!"

Quiz created with MemeGen!

Sorry Jimmy, it was an accident!

mcfodder @ 2004-08-23T08:06:00

2004-08-23T00:31:41Z

I'm sore, but it was lots of fun.

Had Superleague volleyball on the weekend, played in my actual team for mixed 1 on saturday, then filled in for mens div 3 on sunday, was great. We did pretty well on saturday, most of the teams we played were above us on the ladder but we came away with 5 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, and managed to get a draw against at least everyone (we played 4 teams twice each). Really came together towards the end of that day, the last game we just blitzed Malaga. Sunday with mens 3 was good too, Graeme was filling in for them too and we had this little I-do-a-pop-set-behind-my-head-and-he-runs-up-and-smacks-it thang going on. The other guys on the team were great fun to play with too, again doing better at the end of the day when we actually called for the ball and stuff, and we ended up 4 wins / 4 losses. We flogged Freo in the last game, most of them just didn't know how to handle it and got shitty, which made it all the more fun. Added bonus was that Graeme got a well and truly 'bamzer!'-worthy spike, and we were all hitting it nicely. So nicely, in fact, that it now hurts to lift my hitting arm above shoulder height, but 16 games of volleyball in 2 days may do that.

Stayed up at Pittsy and Karinda's place on saturday night, ate some chinese fooooooooooooooooood and played a little Colin McRae 04, a little Soul Calibur II and a whole lotta Tenchu 2. Ninjas are teh awesome.

Had Jess's 21st party last weekend, fun was had by all despite the lead up to it being a little stressful due to an unnamed third party. We massively overcatered, so we'll be having barbecues and drinking beer for months, but hey, that's not unusual. We just have to pretend it's summer! I'd like to have incriminating photos available for viewing by now, but first I need to get a real version of photoshop so I can make the files not huge, and remember what the really weird thing I had to do to connect to the server I use. Xaff, help!

Not much else going on, preparing to go hardcore in search of work in Perth. Not sure if my best bet is to go up there for a few days and run around madly asking for work, or just apply like hell for all the jobs I see in the weekend paper.

I think that sums up most of what has been happening.

Up the tempo, up up the tempo