Sunday, July 31, 2011

One world, many stories

One world, many stories
DAY 25

My new $4 bargain store world globe, in preparation for Australian Children's Book Week 2011 and the theme, "One world, many stories". The globe is quite small; those books are miniatures. The shop also had smaller globes for $2 and a similar size in a different, sturdy base for $8.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Ouchie

Tasmanian devil (#23)
DAY 23

Oh no! My Tasmanian Devil puppet has the dreaded facial cancer!

Just another day of photographing images around school (the students are creating slideshows on Photo Peach)...

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Big mail day

Frankenstein Jr and The Impossibles (#22)

DAY 22

My retro "Frankenstein Jr" money box arrived in the mail today. Finally, he has been reunited with... "The Impossibles". Anyone too young to have watched 60s television may be underwhelmed.

Also in the box today was a retro Mego Captain Christopher Pike and...

Salt Vampire
the long-awaited Salt Vampire ("The Man Trap").

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

CBD

Sydney CBD buildings (#21)
DAY 21

Thanks so much to Sue Tuckett and Graham "Garfield" Barnard for the kind invitation to preview "Captain America: The First Avenger" tonight at the Paramount Pictures theatrette. I wasn't expecting it to be in 3D in such an intimate venue. Excellent film - and great to see some friends from decades ago, such as Craig Walker and Quentin Saville!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Toy Porn 2!

Toy Porn 2 (#20)
DAY 20 coincided with opening night of "Toy Porn 2" exhibition at NG Art Gallery.
Claudia Chan Shaw introduces the art of Nick Stathopoulos.


Thunderbird 1
Thunderbird 1 by Nick Stathopoulos.

Batman and Robby
Batman and Robby the Robot by Nick Stathopoulos.

Tin Tin
Tin Tin paintings by Nick Stathopoulos.

Shaun Tan

What a great night. Thanks, Nick, fo the invitation. Nick's beautiful Archibald-entry portrait of illustrator Shaun Tan (above) was in the downstairs restaurant.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Being Jack

Jack (#18)
DAY 18

Jack, trying to be on his best behaviour, at my Mum's place. He still has the evidence of his shaved tummy (ultrasound) and back (lumbar puncture) from late last year. The hair just doesn't want to grow back. Cortisone does that to dogs. Sigh.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Friday, July 22, 2011

Bark

Bark (#16)
DAY 16

I passed this massive tree trunk walking home this afternoon. It's hard to juggle a bag, an iPhone and an open umbrella at the same time.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Wet, wet, wet

Wet (#15)
DAY 15

Halfway point! A little magic on a gloomy, wet night. Lights from my pool through a glass candle-holder.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Enter the brain

Brain in chair (#14)
DAY 14

Our school library recently had a visit from a brain, official adjudicator for the Stage 2 students' presentations on "What is the most important human body part (apart from the brain)?"

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Monday, July 18, 2011

Somewhere over a rainbow

Rainbow over school (#12)
DAY 12

First day back at work. Spent the whole day looking for "30 Day Challenge" photographic subjects - no luck, no inspiration, walked dejectedly out the gate this afternoon, and lo: a rainbow revealed itself, becoming all the brighter as I spent time choosing how to frame it in the iPhone's viewer.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Pass it on!

Ape

When the last NASA space shuttle lands this month, everyone wear Ape suits. Quick, pass it on.

Sunday brunch!

Eggs Barcelona (#11)
DAY 11

At Mash Cafe, Glenbrook. Poached eggs Barcelona, with roasted capsicum, chorizo sausage, hash brown and sour dough toast. And a dash of paprika.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Friday, July 15, 2011

Max sets sail

Max sets sail (#9)
DAY 9

My latest eBay purchase just arrived on the front step. Max sets sail ("Where the wild things are") in a delightful Hallmark Christmas ornament, just in time for Midwinter Christmas - and Book Week. Sadly, this wild thing - a favourite from my own childhood - was missing from the recent live action film. I really expected him to at least make a cameo appearance.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Seen in Penriff

Penrith (#8)
DAY 8

Ah, good ol' Penrith: an old church on the horizon, completely overshadowed by a cyclist with no helmet, riding on the wrong side of the road, and the newly renamed hairdressers, now specialising in... head-lice control.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Monday, July 11, 2011

All the better to see you with

Gargoyle (#5)
DAY 5

Jimi the gargoyle, who guards my garden. The glass eyes were my own customization, thanks to a little outdoor quick-set putty.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Seagulls are aliens

Seagulls (#4)
DAY 4

Spotted these fascinating seagulls at Shellharbour, south of Sydney. One was attracted by a falling, tiny, crumb of sausage roll - and soon there were hundreds. Once the fuss was over, they were gone again.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

Friday, July 08, 2011

Brrrrr!

Frosty Penrith
DAY 2

First frost in Penrith today! It was still zero degrees at 7.30am. Brrrrr.

What I loved about my original "365 Photos project" was the anticipation of finding a daily pic. It kept the senses tuned all day, flitting in and out my head, seeing potential subjects everywhere. Some days I'd forget until almost midnight - I ended up with about ten shots of the dog looking startled, wondering if it was past our bedtime. The project unexpectedly made me blog more often.

It recorded some very significant events, including my last photo taken of my Dad before he passed away, but before he started to look too frail. It's a year of my life more fully documented than any other in my life. It also led to a fun afternoon chatting to TV personality, Andrew G, who was doing a "365 self portraits" challenge of his own and had a gallery exhibition.

You can't really imagine what 30 days of doing anything will lead to. It'll be great to see what happens sharing experiences with a group (on Maang). A great project for a class, too.

Thursday, July 07, 2011

30 day challenge


"Try something new for 30 days", Matt Cutts

My NSW Department of Education and Communities colleagues on Maang have decided to embrace the advice of Matt Cutts in his TED talk, "Try something new for 30 days" (above).

First up is the Photo Challenge (click for the cumulative slideshow). For the next 30 days, we take a photo a day and post it under the dedicated thread for the day. Day threads will be numbered according to which day we are up to. Subject matter? "What's happening in your life/work today?" (I'm already experienced in this type of challenge, have done the 365 Photos project in 2009-2010.

Here's my pic:

Fish'ook and Bluey
DAY 1

These homemade stuffed cats date back to my teachers college days (1979), based on my cartoon characters, Fish'ook and Bluey, who featured in a comic strip in the college newspaper, "Dugil". They turned up in a vacation cleanup this week; hadn't seen them in years! (Ah, Hobbytex, remember those roll-on paint-in-a-tube things you bought on party plan like Tupperware?)

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

A book on the porch is worth three in the hand

Gemini Agent

Ah! The postman just delivered my Amazon-bought hardcover copy of "Starfleet Academy: The Gemini Agent". It was a delight to hold a new "Star Trek" book in my hands which has cover art that I don't recall ever seeing online first. (It was a mere neutral rectangle when I pre-ordered it.) Nice cover! Green background. Chekov, Kirk and a dark-haired woman with pointed ears. Uhura on the back cover.

"The Delta Anomaly" (#1) I originally found locally at Galaxy Bookshop, but only as a paperback, then I couldn't find "The Edge" (#2) anywhere - even now - so a few months ago I weakened and rebought #1 through Amazon, as a hardcover, plus #2, and pre-ordered hardcovers of #3 and 4. These "young adult" novels are set in the altered timeline seen in the JJ Abrams-directed 2009 movie, "Star Trek".

Doin' the happy dance.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Customs

Customized action figures

Playmates' 9" "Star Trek" figures: Mirror Universe Marlena Moreau (TOS), with a Lokai (made from a painted "Lost in Space" Major Don West figure in Bele's customised costume) and "Deep Space Nine"'s Ezri Dax (made from a Marlena figure - hair removed, new hair sculpted in putty) and wearing a "First Contact" Geordi LaForge uniform (inner collar dyed teal).

Ezri Dax
Ezri Dax

Monday, July 04, 2011

Penrith powder

Here's what Jack found on his walk around the block this evening:

Penrith powder

Welcome to Penriff.

Sunday, July 03, 2011

A bird in the crown is worth two in the hand

Bird in crown at QVB

This seagull was attracting lots of attention today as it stomped around inside the crown of the Queen Victoria statue outside the QVB in the CBD.