Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Tree

Tree is up! Only 2 weeks late. Photos to come. have to get dressed for work, hence short post

-R

PS have seen harry potter 4 and the constant gardener - reviews to come

Monday, November 14, 2005

Goddamn spam pop ups whatever

Argh! We've somehow acquired spam or a virus or something (which is probably my dear brother's doing, lord knows he downloads enough shit for some of it to be corrupted) which means that we don't get op up ads, the windows we're actually using suddenly turn into these ads exhorting you to click on a link to get a Green Card for the US. This was mildly annoying, ooh, about the first 4 or 5 times. But it's happened like 30 times to me over the past couple of sessions (about 2 hours total). Let me get this straight. I went to the US for a month and had a ball, but as much as I liked the country I DON'T FUCKING WANT TO FUCKING MOVE TO THE FUCKING US. Savvy?

-R

PS I haven't written for a while because of exams and shit. This just pissed me off enough for me to actually bother complaining about it. I'd better post before the page changes.

Friday, October 28, 2005

Choose Life.


Which Trainspotting Character Are You?

movies! movies movies movies!

Christ, now I feel weird writing in here knowing that a few people actually read this and I never knew. Officially trying to block your existence from my brain while I type. I feel like you're all looking over my shoulder as I write. Very strange.

So yes. I do now have a flickr account which I have probably forgotten the password to by now, but I've been a little busy to do anything about photos. I turned 19 last week and was feeling majorly bummed by the fact that I still don't know what the hell I'd like to do with my life, got a new job waitressing again and have exams coming up.

However, I have seen three films over the past three weeks which I will now review in my own unique way (which is vaguely, considering I never bothered to write anything down in the first place).

In Her Shoes: Romantic comedy/drama with Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz. Cameron can actually act, which was a pleasant surprise, and Toni Collette was pretty good. Kind of sappy stuff but perfectly enjoyable for seeing with my mum, if not actually very memorable. I didn't *not* like it though (man, double negatives at this time of night! must be crazy) so it must be okay.

Pride and Prejudice: I admit, I'm a purist. I've read the book God knows how many times and I think that the 1995 BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is the quintessential adaptation. Seeing the new feature-length movie version has only strengthened my view. This new version looks like it's trying to be 'gritty and realistic' with the result that the Bennets are living in a flaking-paint dump and the girls are never dressed appropriately (I nearly had a heart attack when Miss Bingley appears in a sleeveless dress at the Netherfield ball, but that's just me). Overall I didn't like the look of the film - It was all dark moors, dramatic bronte sisters type stuff, instead of a light social satire (which is how I see it). The acting was ok, Keira Knightley was quite good although her Lizzy was a bit more flightly and excitable than the one in the book I thought. I didn't really warm to Matthew MacFadyen as Darcy - he seemed quite disconnected and cold throughout. and I couldn't stand how Bingley was made into a foppish blundering Hugh Grant type of character. Obviously, being feature film length instead of 6 hours long, bits of the story were also lost as well as a few minor characters, but it was adapted to film-length rather well. Maybe I would've liked it more if I wasn't already so familiar with the story (and didn't have such a huge sentimental attachment to the Firth/Ehle version!).

Serenity: This one is from Joss Whedon, who wrote Buffy and Angel. It follows on from the TV series Firefly (which I'd never seen or heard of before I saw the movie) but (obviously) works equally as well as a stand alone movie. Being from Joss Whedon, there was some good sarcastic humour and one-liners. The plot basically is that a girl called River, whose mind has been altered or psychologically disturbed or something freaky, is saved by her brother, and both are taken onboard the space craft Serenity, which is made up of an eclectic crew who make their living through smalltime crime. River knows a dangerous secret and the Alliance (the government) is keen to get her back. Or something like that. It's a highly entertaining movie with great action sequences, from the chases to the fantastic fight scenes with River (who I reckon could kick Neo's ass any day). There are also some suspenseful moments and the 'secret' is fascinating and kind of creepy, and fits in really well with the plot.

Anyway I hardly know what I'm typing about now. I have work tomorrow, hurrah. Good night.

-R

PS for someone who's trying to cut down on blaspheming, I think I may have a little way to go.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Greetings from Merimbula!

We (my mum, sister and I) decided to come visit some friends in Merimbula for a couple of days. It's very pretty and the beaches are stunning, but unfortunately the weather has been less than perfect. Yesterday it was so windy we could barely keep our eyes open against it, and my sister and I abandoned our idea of walking along the beach. Today it's rather wet. It rained all of last night and this morning. Hopefully next time we come the weather will be nicer because those beaches look very inviting. It's been restful if nothing else - been doing a lot of sleeping and watching TV. And today in the newspaper it was finally announced that Franz Ferdinand will be playing next year's Big Day Out. *smirk* like G and I didn't already know from Alex himself :)

-R

Monday, September 26, 2005

Sad little internet people

So, I was on the Vogue Forum as I am wont to do when I have a bit of free time on my hands, and there was this chick ther. She's one of those shit-stirrers - the ones who change names every time they're banned (which is pretty much every day) and continue to try and pick fights with users. I took her bait because I was incredibly bored and I thought I would have some fun, and as predicted, she provided plenty of sport, although admittedly her comments weren't very original, along the lines of 'you're all such pathetic idiots for being users and you should get a life'. Oh, and her last stab before she logged off was 'At least I'm not fat like you' (The correct punctuation is from me). Ouch! I mean man, Oscar Wilde himself would've blubbered like a baby in the face of such a scathing yet witty barb (/sarcasm). These flamers are a bit hypocritical though aren't they? They go online and waste time telling us that we're pathetic losers for wasting time online. And that apparently we need lives. While they spend just as much time, if not more, endlessly posting the same boring comments. And in this girl's case, even taking the time to reregister every time she is banned, so she can continue wasting time telling us just how pathetic we really are. If I didn't find it so goddamned funny and entertaining to play with people like this, I might take a little more pity on them for being such sad little friendless attention seekers. But I have too much fun to care. Besides, they ask for a fight, and I gladly participate. And it gave me a chance to use my favourite insult from Will & Grace: 'does it hurt your back when you kiss your ass?'

-R

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

new haircut!

it is a sign of my utter laziness that before I could even be bothered putting up a photo of my NY haircut, I've already had it cut again. So I'm putting up a photo straight away of this one. At the rate I cut my hair, this'll be out of date in 6 weeks. :)



-R

Thursday, September 08, 2005

no news is...well, boring.

I don't even know why I'm updating, because absolutely nothing of any excitingness has happened for a long time now. Unless you count me hurting my back, which has been a whole lotta laughs. Something to do with a disc or something, which basically means it's expensive. I'm also trying to figure out where I'm headed with my uni subjects and everything.

Man, now that is a boring entry. Sorry.

-R

Monday, August 29, 2005

Beware the bogus booksellers...

Today my mum received a letter of about 6 pages from a society calling themselves the Nuova Tech Society. It was sent via first class mail and was full enough of weird shit to make me get online and check them out.

Nuova Tech is part of Neo-Tech Publishing and is suspiciously closely related to Novus Tek, NeoTech, NuovoTech and other similar sounding 'societies'. Basically it's a way to sell incredibly overpriced books which are full of crap. It looks to be a kind of quasi-religious society, that craps on about today's economical, moral and political 'anticivilization' or something.

In the 6 page letter, my mum was told that she had 'several rare traits' when analyse by people from an 'exclusive association, a secret society' and she could become part of the society to learn all its secrets and lead a fairytale life, basically. All she has to do is to send the form back for some 'free' information, but it must be done by a certain date, otherwise she would be too far into 'phase two'.

Let me say, what utter twaddle. Having gone online like any sensible person, I have found the following:

If you are silly enough to send away for the free information, you get a very slim booklet, which basically has the same content as the letter, but in cheap pamphlet form. You also get an order form for the book of supposed 'secrets', which will cost $138. Yes that's right, not so free after all. You are then apparently sent more letters advertising further books which all cost a bomb if you decide to go ahead.

The website for all this (but which obviously doesn't tell you what I just told you) is www.nuovatech.com and the lady in charge goes by the trade name of Barbie Diamond, and it's based in Las Vegas, so if alarm bells aren't going off already, THEY SHOULD BE!!!!

So yeah. That's all there in case you do actually receive a letter. Apparently my mum's one of only seven in the world to receive such a letter, but I somehow doubt it. I'm sure there are more than seven gullible people in America's deep South alone, never mind Australia.

-R

Sunday, August 28, 2005

I'm still alive...

Sorry for not updating for so long. No, I did not commit suicide after coming back because of my post-holiday depression, so apologies for getting your hopes up. I've just been kind of busy with getting back into the swing of real life and trying to catch up a week and a bit of uni. Last week things have been a lot more settled, but now our internet's stuffed, so I'm doing this on my dad's laptop on dial-up. Dial-up I tell you! We have cable upstairs and a 17" screen, and I'm sitting down here at a 15" laptop surfing at the phenomenal speed of 49.2 Kbps. Sheesh.

That's also why I haven't put up any more photos, although god knows I've got them here. Even I got bored trying to trawl through all 2000 or so of them! So as soon as we get back online on the proper computer I'll give it a shot.

G has just bought a sexy new mac laptop and has the software to edit our video now, so in the next few months (hey, we have uni here, give us a break) we might be able to put up some mpegs somewhere. in the meantime next weekend is her 21st, which means we really should have gone a couple of months (or years) later. Oh well, there's always next time isn't there?

In the meantime, the new Franz Ferdinand video is already out, and to our absolute joy, G and I can see ourselves in it! I don't know where G is, but in the massed dancing at the end I'm in the upper left corner, in a black bob with a blunt fringe and a black sleeveless top.

So anyway, nothing else in my life has happened since I got back that is worth mentioning, except on the 30th my boyfriend and I will have been going out for two years. And I am now constantly appalled at the price of things around here. I can't afford any makeup from now on. And apparently our trip to Tasmania in january has been cancelled because my sister made the swimming Age championships. bummer.

-R

Sunday, July 31, 2005

Lucky lucky, We're so lucky

So yes. I didn't really write much about our Franz Ferdinand experience, so here is a more complete version.

G's friend told her about the shoot the night before, and even though people who were interested were properly emailed about it, we were sure enough that it was going to be disorganized that we were prepared to get all glammed up and go anyway.

Which was how G and I came to be walking down the street to look at some shops in crazy makeup and clothes. We got Johnny Bravoed (you know, gross guys wolf whistling etc) 4 times in ten blocks. ugh.

We ended up being about half an hour late to the shoot, thanks to extremely heavy traffic on Hudson street. We actually ended up getting out of our cab and walking the rest of the way because it was faster.

And yes, as we guessed, it was pretty disorganized. We just walked straight in, signed a waiver, had our photos taken, and waited.

And waited.

We had to learn a little dance for the end of the video, which didn't take too long. It looked kinda odd but when everyone did it together it looked very cool, very Franz Ferdinand. The choreographer had apparently flown in to do the shoot at 5:30 in the morning, and she didn't even choreograph the dance - the band did it themselves. Cushy job or what? :) So when we learnt the dance I assumed that soon they would shoot our part. Of course I assumed wrongly.

In mid afternoon they did a pyrotechnics shot, and without wanting to give anything away, it was very very cool, and afterwards I had the first of many encounters with the band. We were all walking back to the holding area after the shot and I passed by Nick, the guitarist, and we had a quick chat about how cool it was. Which surprised G when she turned around to see me talking to one of the band members :)

The guys were really lovely though. We thought we would barely see them, let alone say hi to them, but in between shots they came out and took some time talking to all the fans. The fact that instead of us seeking them out, they came to talk to us, was really nice. And Alex, the singer, told G and I some very exciting news. And we're going to be all mean and smug and not tell you about it.

After getting there at 2 pm, we finally shot our scene a little after midnight. We're at the end of the song, dancing in a huge group behind the band. I was right up the back unfortunately, but since they were shooting from high above us, there's a chance I'll be able to see myself. Look for the arm with the white Make Poverty History wristband :)

After we were done, we got to chat to everyone again. We got a lot of great photos, but since we're packing we can't get them on computer. I'll put them on when we get back to Melbourne.

Yesterday we *finally* saw Spamalot, after waiting in the standing room ticket line three days in a row. We got the last three tickets but one (the friend who told us about Franz Ferdinand came with us). What a hilarious musical! I laughed so hard that at times I could barely stand up. Thankfully all the characters speak with English accents otherwise I don't know what I'd do. There were obviously some changes from the movie (Monty Python and the Holy Grail), the most obvious one being the addition of music. They still had the 'brave Sir Robin' song (the one sung by Sir Robin's minstrels as he walks through the forest), and they put in Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. David Hyde Pierce (from Frasier, forget the character's name...Niles?) played Sir Robin and was magnificent in the role. I never knew he could sing and dance but he did his big musical number so well. Still not sure whether he was really playing the piano, but it looked very convincing! I'd love to see it again...pity I'm going home...BTW if you want to see it, it's sold out till next April. Your only hope is standing room tickets (which actually weren't half bad, we had a good view of the whole stage, and they were just behind the stalls) or cancellation tickets. Standing tickets are $21.25, but you have to line up quite early. We got there at about 8 yesterday, the box office opens at 10, and if it weren't for the fact that there was a matinee we would've missed out on tickets. Cancellation tickets are the same price. oh and there's premium orchestra tickets but they're $300.

And I forgot to get the coconuts! Quite disappointed.

Anyway I have to go pack. I'm really trying to procrastinate, because packing means that I'm going home. I think I'm going to find it very hard to get back into the real world. My life has been so simple this month - our biggest challenges were to decide what to do each day and figure out how to get there. Now we're re-entering reality and we have to worry about university and work and family and everything. Oh well. There are some nice things about going home. I miss my family and my dogs and my boyfriend and my friends and my bed. I think I'm going to find it very strange to hear Australian accents all around me again. I'm so used to the American accent now, I've even adopted it in certain situations (like when I want to be understood!). One thing I am not going to miss however is the humidity here and the men who Johnny Bravo you. But I'm going to miss bagels with monstrous amounts of cream cheese, public transport after midnight, and the ability to walk around late at night being perfectly safe. I'm going to miss walking to cafés late at night and seeing all the people and lights. In fact I'm going to miss the nights here. You can do so much - it's not like Melbourne where everyone goes to bed. I'm definitely going to miss the shopping here! I'm going to miss the artiness of the East Village and seeing creative people wearing individual looks (instead of packs of adolescents all wearing Supré trash). I'm going to miss being so close to everything in the East Village. Like walking 10 blocks and being in the heart of Ludlow street with all its cool bars and cafés. But I've procrastinated long enough and now I really must go pack. See y'all later!

-R

PS the title of this entry is a lyric from the Franz Ferdinand song the clip was shot for. The actual line is 'lucky lucky, you're so lucky' but I changed it. And we are. We are the luckiest people on the planet. This has been the best month of my life.

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Quickie

I'm buggered and I have to be up in less han four hours, but I thought I'd give you a quick update anyway. Been trying to get Spamalot tickets but have been unsuccessful so far. Will try again tomorrow at 6:30 am *sob*. Have only just got back from filming the new Franz Ferdinand video. Will be released on Sep 19. Had heaps of fun, the guys in the band are lovely and chatted to us all for a bit. Were there for 9 hours and our scene was shot in about 15 minutes. Lots of waiting. Will put up photos when I can be bothered and have time. Apologies for the short sounding language. Am stuffed. Going to bed. Goodnight.

-R

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Everyone's a little bit racist...

Ahhhhh! so so so happy.

I FINALLY got to see Avenue Q today! After seeing it on the Tonys last year and thinking I would never have the opportunity to see it. At first we entered the lottery to get $21 front row tickets, but as there are only 12 tickets, there was pretty much no chance of that. We ended up in the exact opposite - right in the back row, high high up in the nosebleed section. Luckily it was the type of theatre where every seat had a good view of the stage. Well we did have a good view, but there was a couple in front of me in the first act who couldn't stop making out, which was a little distracting. Thankfully they weren't there in the second act. I think they may have taken my hissed advice to 'get a f**king room'.

Anyway. Yes, if you possibly can, definitely see Avenue Q. It's a very clever and funny musical. I was nearly in tears most of the time. Most of the main characters are puppets, although since they're basically oversized handhelds so you can see the actors manipulating them and voicing them. They're a talented bunch I have to say - all the principal pupeteers have at least two characters! It gets to the stage where you almost forget that the human is there. Ann Harada, who plays Christmas Eve, deserves a special mention for being hilarious and having a truly magnificent voice. Barrett Foa, who played both Princeton, the recent college graduate and main character, and Rod, was also fantastic, considering how demanding his role was playing two major plot threads and two very different characters.

The puppets are jim-henson muppetish looking, but this is definitely not a children's show! Let me just say - PUPPET SEX. My goodness! lol. Also with song titles like 'Everyone's a Litlle Bit Racist', 'The Internet is for Porn' and 'If You Were Gay'....the only similarities to Sesame Street are purely visual. There are some similarities to the Sesame Street Characters...intentional or not! Trekkie Monster's voice bears a striking resemblance to the Cookie Monster and Rod the closeted Republican homosexual and his flatmate Nicky kinda sound like Ernie and Bert :D My favourite character was Rod ("I am NOT a closeted HOMOWHATEVER!").

Anyway. I could go on forever about how awesome this show was. Instantly my favourite musical, even including We Will Rock You and the Witches of Eastwick. But I think I'll just keep on listening to the soundtrack again and again and again...

Oh yeah. We spent like 6 hours in Macy's Herald Square. What an evil place. G managed to get a gorgeous dress for her 21st and some hot shoes.

Anyway I gotta go to bed now. Tomorrow we have to be at Broadway again at 8 am to try to get STANDING ROOM tickets for Spamalot. That's how popular it is - we have to queue for 2 HOURS for STANDING tickets. We can't even get seats until sometime near the end of the year.

-R

'- The internet is really really great.
- FOR PORN.' - Kate and Trekkie Monster

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

American Airlines = really quite shit

OK OK I'm sorry for the swearing, as I think my parents read this. But seriously, unless you are completely desperate, do NOT fly AA, because they will seriously fuck you around. Example: our farcical flight back to New York today. Or yesterday, now that it's nearly 2 in the morning.

After spending 22 hours on the Greyhound travelling from New York to Chicago, we thought it would be nice to treat ourselves to a quick and painless flight home (Or, rather, we could only afford the airfare one way and decided we'd rather fly back after being exhausted from Lollapalooza). So this morning we got up late, skipped breakfast, did a little shopping, then got to the airport nice and early to check in and farewell our lovely hosts. As it turns out before we even checked in, we found out that our flight had been delayed from 2 pm to 3. This wasn't so bad as it gave us a bit of time once we were in there to find some lunch. So we used the clever little self check in computer (thank god we only had carry on baggage), farewelled our hosts, and made our way to the gate.

Well, things kinda went pear shaped from the beginning. For starters, we were 'chosen' (lucky us!) for extra security screening. G's TSA lady was quite nice and courteous, while mine proceeded to scare the living bejeezus out of me. I made the grave mistake of reaching for my passport before I had permission and she practically threatened to shoot me. Luckily one of the guys going through our luggage (thank god I put all my dirty undies in a sealed plastic bag!) was nice and commented on G's Andy Warhol badge, which helped to calm us down.

So we finally got to our gate, and kinda sat around for a bit, then were told that our flight had been moved to a different gate, which was cool. At our final gate, there were some rather desperate looking people in the standby line hoping to get on our flight. We regarded them with a smile and what can only be called a bit of smugness, as we had our nice little reserved seats and all was well. Or so we thought.

When we were actually sitting on the plane, by about 3:30, nothing really happened for quite a while, then we were 'regretfully informed' that there was a problem with retracting the jetbridge from the plane, and that furthermore if they couldn't fix it in 5 minutes the captain and first officer, the two people you need most to get a plane in the air, would be forced to step down as part of legal regulations regarding working hours or some shit like that. So of course, 2 feet of jetbridge stood between us and New York. Honestly, you'd think that they'd have a manual override for the damn thing. So typically, the jetbridge remained firmly screwed, our flight was cancelled and we were all shoved back into the lounge.

Which is where the fun begins. G immediately jumped on the phone to rebook our flights, and was given a choice between 6 o'clock the following morning to LaGuardia, or 9:50 pm to Newark. We chose the latter, depsite the fact that we hadn't the faintest clue where Newark was. However, luckily for us, we also went and stood in line for standby tickets on an earlier flight to LaGuardia. I felt like bailing and just waiting for the Newark flight, but all props to G for convincing us to stay, as we ended up getting standby tickets. so we went from being one of the smug people smiling at the desperate standby ticket holders, to being one of the desperate standby ticket holders. And being embarrassingly desperate I might add. I crossed everything I could conceivably cross and promised God I would go to church on sundays for the rest of the year if he got us on the flight. Well he got us on the flight alright, but no sooner had I sat down thankfully and fastened my seatbelt when the most freakin big thunderstorm started rocking the plane. I mean literally, the plane was rocking from side to side. So instead of a 7:55pm takeoff, it was more like 9pm. But by then I was beyond caring, and only looking forward to getting 'home' to the flat in New York. And here I am at nearly 2 in the morning. We were only delayed 6 and a half hours after all, and we got to see the Chrysler building in all its lit up night time glory.

So you can blame American Airlines for the lack of Lollapalooza news. I just really can't be bothered right now. I'm sure you understand. And the whole church thing worked out because apparently next sunday my sister is getting confirmed or something.

-R

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Wheee! Philly is pretty.

I'm telling you, this is a gorgeous city. I'm just sorry that we are only spending a day here. This morning we took the bus from New York to Philadelphia. It was a chinese run bus company so of course it was ridiculously cheap, which was great. I was hoping to see some of the countryside, but as soon as we left New York I passed out for an hour. It is so much easier to sleep on the bus than on the plane! For one thing it's so much quieter - no noisy engines right outside your window.

Anyway when we got to Philly we had a lovely lunch at a Malaysian restaurant with our hosts. Mmmmmmm Nasi Lemak... :) I'm happy now. After lunch we went to KMart - we just had to go to an American one! G and I ended up getting matching Spongebob Squarepants pyjama bottoms. We're thinking about wearing them to the Spongebob movie on the Hudson River next week :)

This afternoon we went to the Franklin Institute of Science, which was sooo much fun! It totally kicks Sciencework's ass. We basically spent the afternoon playing with stuff. We also went to the planetarium but instead of watching a space show we saw this thing called Sonic Vision. It was just a whole bunch of pretty decent music (Audioslave, U2, Moby, Radiohead etc) put to some awesome 3d animation. Of course putting it on the domed screen made it totally immersive. Very very cool.

For dinner tonight we had Philly Cheese Steaks, which were...filling to say the least! They were huge! Big buns filled with shaved steak, cheese and mushrooms. And very tasty.

So anyway we're kind of repacking our backpacks right now. We're living light for a few days, and we've just had our last shower before Chicago on friday. eew. In a few hours we're taking an overnight bus to Pittsburgh. See ya round.

-R

away for a bit

Tomorrow we're taking a bit of a road trip to Chicago. We won't be there till Friday and we don't get back to NY till Monday, so expect me to be a bit light on the updates (If I can write at all).

Today we went to Herald Square and the empire state building. Really too busy trying to condense a week's worth of luggage into a small backpack, so I will tell y'all about it when I next write hopefully.

-R

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

International Territory, Wizards and Ferries

Today - man, today's weather sucked. It was soooo friggin hot and humid! We wisely chose an indoor activity today and took a tour of the UN, and only had to endure the trek to and from Grand Central. The UN is really interesting. It's situated on the East side of Manhattan, and although it's in New York, it's actually international territory, so we can say we left the United States today. We got to see places like the General Assembly Hall, the Security Council and the Social Economic Council. We also found out some startling facts about things like military expenditure - such as the fact that every 10 minutes, about US$9 million is spent on arms, and something like 70% of that is spent on the development of nuclear weapons. And in a year, that's more than $700 billion. In comparison, a range of programs to implement democracy, give everyone in the entire world clean drinking water and enough food, education etc, doesn't even come close to costing that much. And we also found out that 80% of landmine injuries happen to civilians AFTER cessation of conflict. Man, we are so not getting our bond back on this planet.

After UN, we went back to Grand Central, which I have to say is a pretty damn impressive building (although most things here are like that!). Oh, and I bought the Harry Potter book :) I know I was meant to wait until I got home to read it, and I seriously resolved to stick to that, but it was much easier to resist the call when I hadn't even seen it in shops yet. But I saw it at Grand Central today and that was it. I'm not meant to read it until the bus to Chicago, and G agreed to let me read the first chapter, so I think I will ask her to lock it in her suitcase until then to help me resist the temptation. Needless to say, this bus trip has suddenly become so much more exciting.

This afternoon we were totally buggered by the heat, so we headed home early for some lunch and some sleep. We ended up going to this fast food joint called Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits about a block from our flat. Here in America, what we call biscuits in Australia are called cookies, so we were interested to see what they called a biscuit. It turns out the texture and taste is like a scone, only these ones are flatter, saltier and more buttery. So that was interesting, if not necessarily worth the calories.

We spent a nice lazy afternoon at home, and I apparently 'passed out' on the couch for half an hour with a book halfway through The Golden Girls. Oh yeah, that's another interesting thing - television shows actually start on time here! when they say a show will start at 5 pm, it will start at 5 pm, and not a second later. In fact I was reading a TV guide magazine and I read a complaint letter - apparently one show started a whole 27 seconds late and screwed up the guy's recording! bizzare. They would die if they found out how late stuff goes in Australia. Channel Ten, you could learn a lot from this *coughbigbrothercough*.

This evening we were meant to be going to Kristeen Young's gig, but a) we're kinda underage and b) we couldn't really be bothered anyway, so after going there to pick up some stuff for our lovely hosts in Chicago, we headed over to the Staten Island Ferry. One thing I love about New York - if you're bored at night, you don't just have to go to a bar, and you're not restricted by public transport hours! We took the ferry at like 10:30 pm. It's about an hour's round trip and it's free. We really enjoyed the breathtaking views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline.

Tomorrow is another early rise as we follow our host's mum to Chinatown to get a gist of where the bus to Philadelphia stops. Then it's off to The Empire State Building and Herald Square, where I will have to excercise every ounce of my self will to not waste more of my money. I have to keep reminding myself that I actually am on holiday for two more weeks and I still have to eat every day :)

Whoa, this entry is heavy on the words and very light on the pictures - not because there's any trouble with the blessed thing, just that I can't be bothered going downstairs to get the cable, then transferring ther pictures to the computer, then uploading them to the net...I'll do it soon. Promise.

-R

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Kayaking and chocolate

Yesterday was yet another warm and humid new york day. The morning was pleasantly cool however, for a nice little brunch in the East Village. I had a pasta with - and I never thought this would work - Pureed dandelions, grana padano (cheese) and cream. It really does work! weird.

In the afternoon, G and I went to the Hudson River for a spot of free kayaking. I happened to stumble upon this on the net. One of the boathouses has volunteers that run this on weekends. That was fun, although I forgot my sunscreen - hello t-shirt tan!

Last night we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. What a great film. Even though I am a Ioan Gruffudd fan, I reckon it kicks FF's arse.

Anyway, today we're doing the Brooklyn Bridge walk. Hopefully I'll put up some photos soon.

-R

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The Met and pretty pictures

Today we were meant to do our whole Central Park walking tour because apparently it was going to be *gasp* cool, but it was actually raining, so we decided to go to the Met. Yes, that's right, the Metropolitan Museum of Art! Finally! After yesterday's disappointment with the Museum of Modern Art being closed, we made sure that the Met would be open today. Seriously, if you're going, one day isn't even enough to scratch the surface! I doubt that we saw much more than 30-40% of the collection. We also saw two special exhibitions today, the Chanel and Matisse shows. There were some seriously fabulous dresses in the Chanel collection, and even the designs from the thirties look great today, they're so classic. I really enjoyed the Matisse show as well - I wasn't aware of the important role that textiles played in making his paintings so bright and vibrant. The Met also showed some of the robes and clothing worn by Matisse's models in the paintings, and it made the paintings seem that much more 'real', to see the materials and inspiration. It kind of brings you closer to the painter - you become aware of the process itself, rather than just observing the finished product without thinking about how it was made.

Enough of my crapping on. We made quite a nice dinner tonight, thankyou very much. Thank god for premixed marinades and bottled salad dressing! We had teriyaki chicken and a salad of spinach, tomato, mushroom, onion and avocado with a blue cheese dressing. And apple and cinnamon waffles for dessert. And we wonder why we haven't lost any weight on this trip yet!

Anyway, apparently the whole photo upload thing is working properly now. G has some up on her blog, so I'll post the ones that she didn't. I don't think I'll bother with more LA ones for now. I might do it at the end of the trip so I don't break the continuity. Or whatever.




See, we CAN cook!

Mmm...cheesecake...

Only in New York...

the TRUMP.

KAWAIIIIIIIIIIII-DESU!!!! ...The dog's kinda cute too. :P

That's what I'm talkin BOUT!!!

Let me stress, there have been NO dodgy dirty water dogs bought from street vendors on this trip. That will be in the last week, when we're REALLY broke.

Times Square!!! Nearly midnight! Way to freak out our parents.

All you need is...

seriously, walk a bit further and you'd never know it was there.

In Trump Tower - yes, I think I'll take two, thanks.

Whassup!? ...oh, you.

If that head were George Bush's, the world would be a better place.

so, I was looking for an interesting piece to hang in my bedroom...

We cook...

Again!




So, that brings y'all up to speed with our photos from New York. We're having a blast. Tomorrow is Fifth and Madison Avenues, where I'm pretty much guaranteed to do no shopping because one top would probably blow out my budget for the rest of my trip.

-R

...Oh yeah, we saw the movie Fantastic Four yesterday. G mainly wanted to see it because it is set in New York City, and we saw it just off Times Square, where one of the scenes is (which I have to admit was kinda cool). My main reason: three words. Ioan. Gruffudd. Spandex. *faints* OK so it wasn't an awesome movie. It had its funny moments but the plot was kinda slow, with the characters developing their powers and all that. But the visuals were stunning :)

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Soho and Times Square

Man, it really is way too humid in NY at the moment. Today I wore probably more suitable clothing, but not the best shoes. I have an impressive blister on top of my big toe. We went down Broadway to Soho again today, and had a look in all the shops. I'm seriously considering an A|X top if I have enough money next week :) we also booked our transprt to and from Chicago. We're flying back, thank god, because we were able to get cheap flights through STA. This evening after dinner we went out to Times Square. In LA we wouldn't have dreamed of going out after dark, but we felt and were perfectly safe leaving at 10:30 and getting back 2 hours later. The subway was still quite busy, even at midnight on a weeknight. Times Square was very cool, and bright! There are heaps and heaps of billboards that are actual colour screens. There were a couple that covered whole buildings. It was mad. Unfortunately the Toys 'R' Us store was closed, but we went to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co and Hard Rock Cafe. They have a cool T shirt that has faux tattoo sleeves - it looks like you're arms are covered in gnarly tatts!

I think tomorrow we're going to MoMA. Yet another one of G's friends has a corporate membership, so he's getting us in for free during his lunch hour. Isn't that nice? We're hopefully meeting up with A from the hostel in LA, and then we'll see Fantastic Four tomorrow evening or something. Se y'all later.

-R

Sunday, July 10, 2005

I (heart) New York

Wow. New York is so easy to get around. So different to LA, where you have to take an hour and two buses just to get to a local mall! We took the subway everywhere today (so much for avoiding it after the London terrorist attacks).

This morning we met up with some friends of G's for brunch somewhere in Chelsea. I think the place was called the Viceroy. They're here studying history, the search for the American Dream or some such thing. I had waffles :)
Then we walked down to Soho and the Village for cheesecake! Now I know why I'm not losing any weight on this trip. We went to a little shop called Eileen's Special Cheesecake. It has a good reputation and rightly so. The cheesecake was unusually light and fluffy and delicious, with sweet juicy strawberries on top. It was also pretty inexpensive.

After cheesecake, we made our way to Wall st, where we got to take photos outside the Trump Building (he owns like half of New York). We also went to the Cloisters after going in the wrong direction and ending up in Brooklyn!

Today was extremely hot and humid. The park around the Cloisters is beautiful and it really doesn't feel like you're in New York, but the walk was absolutely melting. G and I were very glad to get back downtown and go to...Macy's!!!!

Macy's, I have to say, rules. Especially around sale time. g had a hard time finding anything because she's quite small and all the discounted clothes were sold out in small, but I found a Ben Sherman miniskirt for USD13 (down from $69!) and a Calvin Klein tank for $14. Ridiculously inexpensive clothes. Unfortunately they didn't have the one shade of Juicy Tubes that I wanted, but there's always Sephora across the road :)

I got another pair of chucks too :)

Tomorrow - Soho again in the afternoon. Definitely no more major shopping on my part - although the quest for the perfect pair of jeans continues!

-R
some more...










say Fuji!

OK, so I'm trying to post some photos. Maybe you can only put so many on a post. I'll try some in another post. But here are the first few, from before we got on the train to La to our first day there. Enjoy!




Saturday, July 09, 2005

Mmmmmm...Cheesecake...

Oh my God.

I am halfway through the most heavenly cheesecake I have ever had. And I only had to walk two blocks to get it. But I don't think I can finish it - a cheesecake breakfast is looking good at the moment! We got them at a patisserie called Veniero's. Apparently they are extremely extremely popular - we had to get a numbered ticket to get served! The cheesecake is only the diameter of a coffee cup lid but I can't even finish it it's that rich. It may also be because of the dinner we had. Yes that's right, tonight we cooked dinner! We made a kind of penne bolognese with onions and lots of mushrooms. However our pasta was very oily, and we think it may be because we didn't use lean mince so all the fat leached out...eurgh. Anyway it was a pretty damn fine effort if I do say so myself, for two girls who have never really made dinner before. The rest of the groceries we bought for dinner were tinned soups and noodles, which will probably involve slightly less effort.

Tomorrow we're meeting another friend of G's for brunch and then on monday we're going to a florist's on ninth to meet yet another friend of G's, then on Tuesday we're meeting A, a lovely aussie girl we met at the hostel in LA. And we're going to see Fantastic Four. Ioan Gruffudd in spandex...:)

-R

It's a new day...and I'm feeling good

I'm feeling more human today. Our bed is a tatami bed and is really really hard - kind of akin to sleeping on a hard floor. But surprisingly I woke up this morning and was not sore anywhere - in fact I slept pretty darn well last night, thankyou very much. They're meant to be good for your back and apart from the initial difficulty in finding a comfy position, It's quite easy to get a good night's sleep. I didn't feel sore at all when I got up this morning.

We are literally living in a shoebox on E 12th street in a tiny little flat. But it's pretty new and nice and modern, and much nicer than the hostel in LA. And we have a kitchen, and unlimited net time :)

Anyway today we're going to do boring houekeeping things, like grocery shopping and some laundry. We're living in the East Village so after all that's out of the way it's off to do some serious vintage clothes shopping! Yippee!

-R

Friday, July 08, 2005

OK, slightly longer post

So, I was seriously running out of net time in LA. but now I'm in New York on a normal non time limited computer, and I can take as long as I want. Yes, that's right, NEW YORK. Pretty cool huh?

I might post later. I have a headache and I'm tired and starving and can barely concentrate on this.

-R

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Monday, June 20, 2005

Strange Bannerisms

Aha! I spy a difference to the look of my blog. Well, maybe that's because I'm the one who put it there. I know what you're all thinking. 'Man, that is a sweet banner'. But it is for a serious cause. Click on it, please. Aussies go to makepovertyhistory.com.au and learn how you can get involved. Buy a white band and wear it proudly, especially on Friday the 1st of July which is one of numerous global white band days. G got her's mailed from the Uk and no sooner does she receive them than we actually get the campaign launched here. Go Figure. And get on board! I'm writing letters to two of my local MPs.

And it's 12 days to the USA!!! Omigod. I am so totally unprepared for this trip. Fweee!

And I got my *signed* Hornblower DVD back yesterday. *faints* Ioan Gruffudd actually touched it! LOL ok that is a bit weird. It's signed, that's what counts...right?

Anyway we went to the ballet tonight, it was a triple bill called 'White', all Ballets blanc. La Bayedere was excellent and so was Suite en Blanc, which incidentally is the first ballet I ever saw, but Relic, to me at least, was pretentious. And the costumes were flesh coloured! They're meant to be WHITE. My tastes are old fashioned though. Give me a classic feature length ballet with a heart-wrenching love story over a cutting-edge modern work any day. I've never been a big fan of flexed-foot ballet. And I've just realised that I've hardly listened to triple J at all or any rock music for about 2 weeks - it's either been Michael Bublé or ABC Classic or 3MBS. Weird.


-R

Thursday, June 16, 2005

whee! got a new phone

So, I've finally bitten the bullet and retired my faithful old Nokia 8310 this afternoon. I'm sure I'll still use it when I don't want it stolen, because it's an old black and white lump. Anyway my new one is all flashy and colourscreened and camera equipped and shit. I like it, although I still feel loyal to the old one. Especially as it still has all my old numbers in it! For some reason they didn't save on my sim card, so now I have to spend an hour transferring them. This should be fun. Anyway I think it's the same one that G has (maeko-qinza.blogspot.com). I already have a photo of Michael Bublé as my wallpaper :)

-R

Sunday, June 12, 2005

yayness!

I've just been told that Ioan Gruffudd was able to sign my Hornblower DVD after all. Yay! I seriously thought they wouldn't have time because they all looked majorly tired. So this is a nice surprise :)

And I'm seeing Mr and Mrs Smith tonight - hope it's good!

-R

Thursday, June 09, 2005

I went to Rove!

Yes indeedy, I went to Rove. It's be exciting anyway - it was my third time so the excitement is still there - but this time we were seeing Ioan Gruffudd! In the flesh! Right there in front of us! Excuse me for being an obsessed fangirl for one second but...*squeals*

OK, so we didn't get to meet him or anything, but we got to sit in *the* green room (which is actually blue) as well as the less pretty room behind the studio. And Jimmy Barnes walked straight past me. that was cool :)

So this was the first time that we were sitting in the front secton right in front of Rove's desk. I was hoping for the section on the other side in front of the couches, but I take what I can get. I still had a good view of Ioan anyway :)

In the ad break before the Big Brother evictee with the scary piercing, they gave us lollies and I got a big fat Redskin. And, typical, the moment I put it in my mouth, the floor manager yells '30 seconds!' so I had to sit with it in my mouth and try and chew surreptitiously when they weren't filming the audience. and then one of my friends went to the loo in the break befor ethe Fantastic Four came onand got back as they were finishing the ad break - they almost didn't let her in but relented and let her sit on Pete and Corinne's armchairs for the first segment.

Anyway, on to the important topic of me perving on Ioan. Yes, he was very gorgeous, a tiny little bit shorter than I thought, but nowhere near as tiny as Rove, who is puny in real life (kawaiiiiiiiiiiiiii-desu!!!). He had kinda flat-ironed hair, which was weird, and Michael Chiklis teased him, saying it was his 'There's Something About Mary' hair (the font was sticking straight up). The interview was good but we couldn't hear all of it that well - they don't mike them for the studio, something to do with feedback I think. I loved the stretchy Mr Fantastic Doll - gotta getme one of them! And Julian McMahon's accent was strange - a very strong hybrid between American and Australian.

After the show we got cake :) it's was the floor manager's birthday and she offered us some of her birthday cake. As we were leaving, one of the Channel Ten people came up and offered to take our DVDs that we wanted signed and promised to try and ask Ioan at some point during the night. I haven't got my hopes up but it would be nice.

And then yesterday I totally cocked up my psych exam. Life's like that - spend an evening at a live television show, and that's that many hours less that you spend studying.

Oh and I am in love with Michael Buble. His new album is great, and as he says, he is a 'human aphrodisiac - a walking oyster'!

-R

Sunday, June 05, 2005


an example of how lucky you can get with a digital point-and-shoot - this was taken from a car at a roadside fruit stall in the middle of nowhere Posted by Hello

I think I'm pixelated

so, I just put up a photo. Now y'all know what I looked like about 18 months ago. Nothing much has changed, except in real life I'm not so blurry. I did have bright red streaks but on monday I dyed it jet black - I'm very lazy about the whole thing and carroty orange was starting to look a tad skanky.

And we're going to Lollapalooza! This trip just gets better and better. The Black Keys - wOOt!!! I was so cut that I missed them at Falls this year.

oooooooh I can smell roast lamb...one good thing about mum being away is we get to eat stuff like this...although she is coming back tomorrow which I'm happy about...and apparently she's gone overboard with the shopping in Singapore/Johor! Sweet.

-R

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Shall We Dance?

Hurrah, I'm starting ballroom dancing lessons on Friday. I'm quite excited, I must admit I've missed the whole dancing thing after quitting tap last year. I watched my parents at a lesson today (now how's that for role reversal?!) and decided I needed lessons, not just because all the instructors there at the time were cute males with even cuter butts (don't worry, T, they're more than likely gay anyway). The basic steps don't look too hard. I was able to learn the bones of the rhumba and swing today just from watching my parents. My mum has trouble following though...she likes leading too much!

-R

Monday, May 16, 2005

So long and thanks for all the fish

Geez, I'm getting really bored in these four-hour breaks. I even went to see a movie (namely, the Hitchhiker's Guide tot he Galaxy) by myself today. It's the first time I've ever seen a movie by myself. It was pretty damn good and I have that song ("So Long and Thanks for All The Fish") stuck in my head. And I want a Marvin action figure!!!! I'm going to sound like a hopeless teenybopper and you're all going to hateme, but...*squeals* he is too cute!

Anyway I think someone aggro has used this terminal because there are scratches all around the computer screen. Someone aggro or someone dumb. You don't need whiteout, it's called the 'backspace' key, sweetie.

-R

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Separated at Birth

Pope
Hannibal
How much does Pope Ratzinger look like Anthony Hopkins? And do you reckon they just did it so that he could play the pope in a biographical epic?

-R

Monday, May 02, 2005

Did anyone watch the Logies?

Oh my god, have you ever seen such a big crowd of attractive people so hiedously dressed? It's like everyone started out with a dress that really suited them, then swapped with someone else so they were wearing totally the wrong thing.

I admit, I like watching the big awards events and seeing what everyone's wearing. But last night was not enjoyable for me. There were a few atrocities that particularly stuck in my mind

-a young blonde thing, probably from a soap, who was pretty and curvy, who wore a dress that not only showed off her surprisingly saggy boobs (support, girl!) but also her muffin tops, as it barely covered anything.

-a host of a travel show (I think), wearing a dress that was really beautiful, but absolutely pointed to her decollotage with neon arrows. Which would've been ok if her skin didn't look like saddle leather (someone's obviously done a bit too much tanning in their youth).

-Bridie Carter, whose boobs looked like they were about to spring out to say hello.

-Pauline Hanson, who wasn't content with scaring everybody just because she's a white supremacist bigot, and had to go around showing off saggy middle aged cleavage. I mean seriously, there are kids watching.

And there should be a rule - 45 seconds max for acceptance speeches, and if you haven't got one prepared, they give the logie to someone who has. Because I've heard five-year-olds speak more eloquently than that most popular new female 'talent' chick (I use 'talent' very, very loosely here, and only because that's the name of the award that she supposedly deserved). seriously girl, you won most popular new talent. Which means in 2 years time you'll either be at McDonald's saying 'do you want fries with that?' or at Frankston Shopping Centre, performing to 30 four-year-olds who don't know better with the latest flop single of your horrendous pop album, which sold 20 copies after your family and pet dogs bought two copies each.

-R

Friday, April 29, 2005

*clunk*

jeez, I'm tired. I actually dozed off in the middle of a sentence on the computer just now and wrote 'participants completed both tasks after her Italy, which was rather cold.'

Christ.

Italy's not that cold anyway. I really must be losing my mind.

Oh well, sleep for me. I think I'll wake up early to finish this stupid psych report. At least it's kinda like a fill in the blanks kinda thing, shouldn't take me all that long to finish it. However, I might put it away in a safe spot for now before it gets covered with more of my exhausted sleep-typing.

-R

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

*bleep*

Shitbuggermotherfuck. I have a lot of shit due tomorrow, which I haven't finished (or rather, barely started) yet. I don't think I'll sleep tonight, I'm planning on an all-nighter. Luckily I have a new fluffy dressing gown to keep me snuggly warm while my brain bleeds all over the keyboard. I have 3000 words to type tonight, plus a rather large Italian test to study for. And I have another 2000 words due on monday for history. This should be fun. I haven't even started the history yet, I'm counting on doing it tomorrow night or something.

Anyway what the fuck am I doing here!? I need to get to the library.

-R

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Bugger It.

I came online with the intention of writing an update on my blog. Truly I did.

The thing is, after an hour of procrastinating, I now can't be fucked.

But I meant to. Know that.

-R

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Bloody work

Argh. Why is it that I'm working all four days of my long weekend? *especially* when I asked to only have *2* shifts a week? Three shifts I could understand, it is after all anzac day tomorrow, but c'mon. FOUR days? I just happen to have three major assignments and a major test next week.

Bloody work.

-R

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Procrastination is (not) a dirty word

Shit, why is it that whenever I try and actually do something productive on the internet I get most horrendously sidetracked by the most pointless bullshit?

Anyway one cause worthy of distracting me from yet more history reading is makepovertyhistory.org. I personally go all earnest right now and urge you to go and visit it.

-R

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

IT labness

The lab is cold. Like really freakin' cold. I think it's meant to keep us awake, but my nose is beginning to feel brittle. One thing you'll notice - when I complain about it being cold, my nose will invariably have first dibs on the whingeing. And rightly so. Chocolate wouldn't smell nearly so good without it (although on the other hand, monkey shit wouldn't smell nearly so bad).

I think monekys with typewriters is a reference to the lab at this time. There's very little conversation but the clicking of keyboards has not ceased since I first came in about 4 hours ago. My bum's beginning to go numb and I haven't done any of the reading I was planning on doing.

Anyway, I've been having a pretty ordinary day. The girl who's been staying at me house (an old net friend of mine, long story), didn't want to come out today. However my mum said 'do NOT leave N at home by herself', and, like I told N, given the choice between pissing her off or my mum, I'd much rather piss her off. Well she was clearly not happy with me and went around showing it in a rather immature manner, so I washed my hands of her for the day. At first I was worried that she'd be so huffy that she wouldn't meet me at Flinders St to go home, then I realised that she's 18 and can take care of herself. Besides, I've got her luggage. I was just surprised and a little disappointed that she was so immature and childish about the whole situation, given that I apologised and reasoned with her for half a fucking hour. Oh well, I did what I could.

Actually with hindsight I think I was expecting some sort of conflict between us all along. We don't really have that much in common and met up through a message board a few years ago. We kept touch on MSN but never met each other in the flesh until last week. I think that we don't have lot to talk about in person. On MSN it's so much easier to keep a one-track conversation. I think this is one of those friendships that should've been left online. Will this change the situation? I have no idea. She was pretty pissed this morning. If she is a girl of quick moods and recovers quickly she should be alright. I'm perfectly ready to greet her with a smile this afternoon. If not, then she's not. It may sound harsh, but it's no skin off my nose. I have more than enough friends I've been neglecting in real life.

Unfortunately my day's not finished yet. After wasting half an hour more here I've got a history tute, then a meeting at work. Then I have to spend the evening home alone with a very huffy N. sigh.

First post

Welcome to monkeys with typewriters. As we enter, you will see a row of pegs holding white hazmat suits. Please put one on over your clothing; we're still trying to teach the monkeys that throwing their own shit at people is not winning them any brownie points.

Everyone suited up? Good enough.

Hi. I don't know why I'm starting a new blog, because I already have one at livejournal. However, the template doesn't look at nice as this one. I like to be professional looking, even if I don't necessarily act that way.

Anyway, for starters, my name is...actually I have a tradition of not putting my name up on the net. It's appeared a few times when other people have mentioned me, and it may appear somewhere here...I don't know how the whole system works yet. But if it's up, it's up, and you know my name, and if it's not, it's not, so there. that's one of the things I like about the net. You could be anything to anybody, although I don't necessarily ascribe to that. I could be a stunning 6 foot blonde blue-eyed lingerie model living in London with her 4 equally stunning model friends in a flat that's a permanent nightclub, but I'm not (otherwise I wouldn't know how to to use a computer and I wouldn't know that monkeys throw their own shit). I'm an 18-year-old uni student living in Melbourne with my family. I like my family. I think you would too if I let you get to know them.

Monkeys with typewriters should be here for a while, mainly because I like the title, and I'm starting to get sick of my old net username (which I might put up at some point). Without the username I'm just me, so hopefully I'll be slightly more open than in my old blog. Which, I'm starting to think, may be a reason no one ever bothered to read it. Everything's so goddamn cryptic that unless you were actually there, you wouldn't have a clue what was going on. I'll try to be nicer here.

Enjoy.

-R