Happy New Year!

Have a great 2007!

Nice one for the holidays: The Pursuit of Happiness

"Take your dad to the Super Bowl. Buy a home near the office. Get married. Go out to dinner with the family. Take a memorable vacation, and be sure to buy souvenirs."

The Pursuit of Happiness: Six experts tell what they've done to achieve it

Barack Obama on Charlie Rose

The Charlie Rose interview with the future president of the US (with any luck)

Obama's inspiring speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

I found this wonderful gem today, which will be a perfect present for my sisters to celebrate 20 years in Australia since the family migrated from South East Asia.


The Arrival is a hauntingly beautiful book by Shaun Tan and is filled with stunning drawings.


"The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. He eventually finds himself in a bewildering city of foreign customs, peculiar animals, curious floating objects and indecipherable languages. With nothing more than a suitcase and a handful of currency, the immigrant must find a place to live, food to eat and some kind of gainful employment. He is helped along the way by sympathetic strangers, each carrying their own unspoken history: stories of struggle and survival in a world of incomprehensible violence, upheaval and hope."


The Arrival on Amazon.

So many things to do, so little time.

For the last 6 months or so of wedding planning shenanigans, I've been hopeless with keeping up to date with the news and I have barely read any books. Now that the Big Day is over (although the boy and I have yet to write our Thank You cards - yikes), I'm just starting to ease my way back into things.

However, I find myself wishing I had more time to do everything I want to do. So many newspapers, magazines and books to read, so little time.

I've got my stack of books ready to go. Currently reading Snow Crash and The Fingerprints of the Gods, both have my imagination running wild. Can't wait to dive into Heart of Fire , The God Delusion, The Naked Scientist, Who Invented What When, The Diamond Age, The Prize, All the Shah's Men, and A Little History of the World (an excellent book which I never got to finish on my first pass for various reasons).

I'm thinking I need to get rid of the idiot box with which I have waaaay too good a relationship.

Sniff your way to a diagnosis!

Nifty!

"Australian scientists are promising a new era in the detection of brain disorders like Alzheimer's, with diagnosis through smell tests.

The University of Melbourne team has discovered a link between an inability to identify odours and at least five diseases..."

Scientists use smell tests to detect brain disorders

scooterbride!

The Big Day was a blast. Scooterboy and I had a wonderful day and Melbourne sure turned on the good weather *phew*!!

Heading off to the beach soon for a mini-moon. We hope to get away for a real honeymoon sometime next year. Will post more once I get back in a few days.

Here's a little pic from the day. A HUGE THANK YOU to our photographer, Joseph Koprek, who did an AMAZING job on the day. Joseph made us feel so relaxed and we had a lot of fun taking all the shots. He even uploaded the shots on the night of the wedding! That's efficiency all right!

Joe, if you're reading this, so many of our friends and family have commented on how brilliant the shots are.

Thanks too to Marcus, of C2 Video, the videographer, who helped bring on the fun.

Also, thank you to the rest of the Big Day Crew (see earlier post) who all came through with flying colours on the day.

Apologies for missing Angel Faces in my earlier post. Alison (hair) and Kylie (makeup) were terrific on the day and Tess who helped to put it all together was always lovely.

Tokyo ticket machines powered by footsteps

Sweet!

"JR East's new experiment consists of energy-generators under ticket wickets, a milliwatt-tracking counter, and 700,000 daily commuters. For the next two months, the railway company will be using using the vibrations of human footsteps at Tokyo Station to generate up to 100 milliwatts per second per person that walks through. The idea is to be able to generate enough electricity to power the wickets themselves and their display panels regularly." BoingBoing

Thumbs up for the big day crew!

I hope I'm not jumping the gun but I thought I would plug the excellent people whom I have dealt with to date for my wedding. I hope some Melbourne bride or groom out there will find this helpful.

All mentioned here have been professional, really friendly, helpful and a pleasure to deal with.

Wedding Gown

Sue and Christa at Brides of Armadale, High Street, Armadale. Amaline and Sue helped me to choose my dress and made the experience enjoyable and pain-free. First fitting went well and again, Sue and Christa made it an entertaining evening.

Photographer

Joseph of Joseph Koprek Photography. Down to earth, friendly and showed us some beautiful shots from previous weddings. Joseph was recommended to me by a friend whose wedding photographs worked out fantastically.

Videographer

Marcus of C2 Video. Down to earth, friendly, full of ideas. You can view a number of brilliant sample videos on his website.

Venue for ceremony and reception

Churchers on Richmond Hill. Judith and Joe have been so friendly and upbeat. They have been most helpful and happily answer questions and offer their assistance at every turn. Churchers has a beautiful, brick-paved courtyard which is most versatile. I've attended a wedding at Churchers when the couple held their ceremony in the courtyard. Scooterboy and I will hold the ceremony in an adjoining room, electing to set up the tables for the reception in the courtyard.

Bouquet

Gaylene at Flowers Vasette was an absolute delight to meet and work with. Friendly and funny, I had a great time walking through sample bouquets with her. Vasette have a wonderful selection of bouquets and arrangements. From the good old bunch of red roses to more interesting and different arrangements at a reasonable price.

Wedding Cake

The ladies at AbFab Cakes were really friendly despite my showing up without an appointment when they were incredibly busy in the shop. AbFab have a great showroom where you can wander around amongst the sample cakes and samples are free for the taking in a covered cake tray. Their chocolate cake is this-must-be-some-kind-of-sin good. My sister's wedding cake ages ago was made with this chocolate cake... a number of her guests still remember her cake to this day!

Vintage Car

TripleR - friendly and easy to deal with. They have a huge warehouse where you can wander around all the cars on offer and are free to jump into them to test them out.

Celebrant

Marie Scomazzon - Very helpful, friendly and we have greatly appreciated Marie's no-nonsense, non flappy-hands-wedding-frou-frou approach. Google "Marie Scomazzon" and her details should pop up on a number of wedding sites.

So, that's the crew to date. I hope the positive experience continues right up to the wedding!

Scooterboy's Shanghai Caper Round 2

Scooterboy set off this morning for Shanghai Misadventures Round 2. For various reasons, I will remain at home in Melbourne. He will be gone for more than a year. Missing him already.

I am forcing myself to see the glass as half full. We will travel to see each other, Skype released video for Mac and we can chat to each other easily, Jajah will also help to close the miles between us. December 2007 will be here before I know it. Yes it will. Dammit.

Pic Host

Gimme Gimme!

Great article on the Tesla Roadster.

"You see any cops?" Eberhard asks, shooting me a mischievous look. The car is vibrating, ready to launch. I'm the first journalist to get a ride.

He releases the brake and my head snaps back. One-one-thousand: I get a floating feeling, like going over the falls in a roller coaster. Two-one-thousand: The world tunnels, the trees blur. Three-one-thousand: We hit 60 miles per hour. Eberhard brakes. We're at a standstill again -- elapsed time, nine seconds. When potential buyers get a look at the vehicle this summer, it will be among the quickest production cars in the world. And, compared to other supercars like the Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari Enzo, and Lamborghini Diablo, it's a bargain. More intriguing: It has no combustion engine.

The trick? The Tesla Roadster is powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries -- the same cells that run a laptop computer. Range: 250 miles. Fuel efficiency: 1 to 2 cents per mile. Top speed: more than 130 mph.

... "If you took the energy in a gallon of gas and used it to spin a turbine, you'd get enough electricity to drive an electric car 110 miles,"

Also, Mark Morford's hilarious Lick My Silent Sports Car

"See, they lie. And they've been lying for years, decades. They lie about how difficult it is to replace the internal combustion engine. They lie about how unfeasible it is to eliminate auto emissions without sacrificing real performance (the 130-mph Roadster's lithium-ion battery system is estimated to be twice as efficient as a Prius and three times as efficient as a hydrogen fuel cell. Not to mention Tesla's fabulous solar option).

But they lie, most of all, about how much we still require foreign oil, because these billion-dollar corporations claim they can't possibly afford to develop sufficiently advanced technology in your lifetime to create a 100-percent emissions-free, oil-free, ultragreen vehicle that still has all the comforts and performance of a regular car.

Nice pipe dream, they say. Here, have a bloated SUV, they say. Sorry about all your dead kids in Iraq, they add, smirking like a chimp and blowing their noses into a big pile of Halliburton profits. "

Courtesy of Houston.

Darth Vader Being a Smartass

Human eyes + shiny, bright green makeup = not a good thing

The Big Day shenanigans continue.

I'm hunting for a hair and paint-face lass for the Big Day and asked my hairdresser if he knew anyone who might fit the ticket.

He suggested I speak to his mate at the Shiseido boutique in QV (Melbourne shopping site) who had done the makeup for his colleague's wedding.

I should have heeded a mate who advised, "never trust a Honky when it comes to anything involving aesthetics." (Honky = person hailing from Hong Kong, or one who is heavily influenced by Canto culture).

I trotted off to the Shiseido shop and asked to speak to, let's call her, Stuffy Counter Wench. Turned out I was speaking to her and she too was a Honky. "Oh no," was my first thought. It was going to be a tough sell for Stuffy Counter Wench from the word go. She was in her 40s, possibly 50s, and was sporting bright green SHINY eyeshadow. Nice.

We spoke about pricing, while I stared at the shiny bright green eyeshadow. Naturally, I asked if she could show me photographs of her previous work and Stuffy Counter Wench turned into Snippy Stuffy Counter Wench. Snippy Stuffy Counter Wench huffed and rolled her eyes and snapped, "I've been doing this for ten years, I don't do that anymore!"

"I ask because you're wearing shiny bright green eyeshadow, and girlie, that's all kinds of not happening." I did not say.

I thanked her and left.

Mac Bridezilla

Scooterboy and I had visions of a big-ass BBQ for our wedding but alas, it was a huge logistical nightmare (even more so than a run-of-the-mill wedding believe it or not). So, I find myself turning into a real bridezilla with the frock, the four-walls-and-roof venue, vintage car and yada yada yada. Hence, the lack of posting in this blog. We have both been running around like headless chickens putting this thing together!

I'd just like to mention that my love for Mac was recently affirmed when I created our wedding invitation video from scratch in around 4 hours. The 4 hours included time for me to scratch my head and ponder life, the universe, and everything since I had NEVER before used iMovie. Despite that, creating the video was easy-peasy-Japanesey after an initial muckaround. I am absolutely astounded at the powerful software developed by Mac. iMovie and iDVD were an absolute dream to use!

I was able to edit the video, add effects, add photos, add notes, and bang it all into a DVD and upload to the internet so, so easily! Thank you, Apple!

Ok... nuff gushing for now. Back soon-ish... maybe :)

Extract from Profiles in Courage

Extract from Introduction written by Caroline Kennedy.

"John F. Kennedy began his public service career as a PT-boat commander in the South Pacific in World War II. While on patrol on the night of August 2, 1943, the PT-109 was rammed by a Japanese destroyer, the Amagiri, and exploded into flames, throwing crew members into the burning water. Two were killed and one was burned so badly he couldn't swim. Clutching a strap of the injured man's life jacket in his teeth, Lieutenant Kennedy towed the wounded sailor to the nearest island, three miles away. For the next six days, with little food or water, the men hid, fearing they would be captured by the Japanese. Each evening Kennedy swam through shark-infested waters to other islands seeking help, until he was spotted by two Solomon Islanders, Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa. They picked a coconut, onto which Kennedy carved a message, which they took to the hideout of a nearby Australian coast watcher who arranged rescue. In the summer of 2002 a National Geographic Society expedition found that the legend of John F. Kennedy's courage lives on in the far-away Solomon Islands. Using remote-controlled vehicles with underwater cameras, explorer Robert Ballard and his team discovered the sunken PT-109. Expedition members met Eroni Kumana, the man whose simple canoe saved my father's life and changed the course of history, and his son, John F. Kennedy Kumana.

My father's bravery earned him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal "for extremely heroic conduct," and a Purple Heart for his injuries. It also led to Profiles in Courage. The collision with the Japanese destroyer left him with a spinal injury, which required surgery in the winter of 1954-55. Elected to the U.S. Senate two years before, my father was interested in understanding the qualities that make a great senator. History was his passion, and he spent his months of recuperation reading the chronicles of his legendary predecessors. To both my parents, history was not a dull, dry affair, but a constant source of inspiration. They believed that there truly are heroes, and we all can learn from their example. My father's heroes were men and women who were willing to risk their careers to do what was right for our country. Profiles in Courage, published in 1956, tells their stories."

Profiles in Courage

I am currently reading Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy and just want to highlight one paragraph.

"In a speech he gave the summer after the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy spoke of peace:

'Let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."