Does anyone know what the song is at the end? The people at the place pick the tunes.
Jan 29 2009
leaping, leapilly
So the other thing we did last Sunday was leap out of a plane with some guy strapped to our backs. Handily, they had parachutes attached to them so we got to survive the trip down. We were supposed to jump at midday, but when we rocked up we found out that their plane had a fuel leak, so that put a bit of a crimp on things. They had organised a four-seater plane to try and get some jumps happening, but they were unlikely to find time to get us up there… until someone found some gaffer tape and fixed the fuel leak. So we got to jump after all! We had to wait around until 5:00 though, but we passed the time visiting the temple in the previous post, cooking up some lunch on the BBQ at the place and throwing a frisbee around. But then, it was jumping time! Again, pictoriality follows. Click to embiggen…
Wandering over to the plane, harnessed up. I thought that t-shirt was appropriate. (It says Insane Stunt Bonus.)
I was all ready to go, but Glenn (who would be strapped to my back) was looking a little nervous.
On the way up…
…and up…
Hmm.. where does this thing attach to…
Glenn was apprehensive.. I assured him we’d be all right.
Awesome hat, I want one.
Now you see her…
…now you don’t!
Wait, I’m not sure I left my tray table up…
The windswept look.
How hardcore? So hardcore.
Wind does strange things to peoples faces… Also, about to hit the clouds.
In the clouds.. they feel like running through a fine mist. Only finer.
Good brakes… real good brakes… that part was a little violent.
Ahh, there’s the ground.. still a fair way up though.
The beach from on high.
I drove for a bit.. We pull down hard right and went into a fast downwards spiral. I had it all under control though…
Glenn was relieved to be in the hands of an expert.
Hey, I can see my car from up here…
On the ground again.
Ya did good, Glenn.
This was the mob we did it with, they’re a great bunch of people. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and will be looking for another chance to do it. It’s an excellent way to spend about an hour all up. I’ve a DVD of it too (all the pictures are just still images pulled from the DVD about every five seconds) but I’ve not gotten around to figuring out how to get that in a format I can put online yet. If/when I do, it’ll appear on here.
I made a jungle curry tonight. You know it’s good when you keep coughing and blowing your nose while cooking it…
Jan 26 2009
a place with a name
Yesterday was a day in which some things happened. One of these things was that we visited what apparently used to be the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere. Here’s some photographic evidence. Click to embiggen.
the pagoda
The pagoda at the top of the hill.
little dudes
There were some little stone dudemans about the place.
the view
The view from the top.
gratitute
Always nice to have.
bored
This guy reminded me of me at school…
dodgy locals
Not sure about these two…
main joint
The front of the main complex.
raower
Don’t wanna mess with this guy!
what a beard!
Walldude has awesome beard.
inside
Main building inside the complex
another view
View from up inside the complex.
tripping hazard
Some people have issues reading instructions… and I’m not talking about the no cameras thing, that was for inside…
No pictures of inside, as that was not allowed in most of the buildings. The latter, more exciting half of the day will be documented and whatnot when I get the pictures…
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Jan 16 2009
muey good
I just watched The Protector/Tom Yum Goong. Basically, a Thai version of an early 80s Hong Kong martial arts film. A very good one. Excellent action sequences, poor excuse for a plot, worse acting. Unfortunately for those as who are me, the international release has a godawful English dub over anything that’s in English. The scenes shot in Thailand full of thai people are half in english, for no reason other than the producers of the international version assuming many of us are fucktards. The stuff spoken in Thai by the main characters is subbed, most (but not all) of the stuff spoken by the bit parts is dubbed. Then when the action moves to Sydney (early on), the stuff that should be in cantonese is dubbed, and the stuff spoken by the Thai guy who is in the Sydney Police Force when he’s speaking English is dubbed (by someone else) but when he’s speaking Thai it’s been recorded on set. Shocking. It’s just far too obvious and far too crap. If you need an actor that speaks both Thai and English, then find one. It’s nice that you want to give the major guys from Ong-Bak (see it) some work, but please don’t undermine yourselves. All in all, it’s excellent and you should all watch it.
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Jan 13 2009
murrgent
Last night I couldn’t sleep. I don’t mean it took me ages to get to sleep though.. I mean I didn’t sleep. There may have been some short sections of light dozing, but otherwise it was just me lying around not sleeping. I got bored enough to give up when it started getting light. Given that, I’m amazingly not tired.. I’d've expected myself to be falling over by now, but I’m still going rather well. I decided that I didn’t want to gym on no sleep though, so that got delayed for another day. Yesterday I was just too busy. Oh.. if you’ve not heard, I joined the gym about six weeks ago.. then went on hols over christmas for three weeks and ate/drank everything. Oh well.. that’s what christmas is for. I’ll get back into it now go hard.. I wish to be fit, slender and attractive.
On the plane on the way home I read most of Neil Gaiman’s short story collection, Smoke and Mirrors. It’s rather fun really, even without some background knowledge that’d be handy for some of the stories. One odd thing though is that each story has an introduction to it.. but they’re all lumped together at the start of the book. It means I keep flicking back to re-read the intro segment before or after I read each story. Seems it woulda made more sense to put the intros with their respective stories, but anyway. Recommended.
You may feel that I only ever read books that I end up recommending to you, dear reader.. and you’d be right. My taste is just that good. And by that, I mean my friends’ tastes. Also, I don’t read a whole lotta books, so I gotta make sure the ones I go for are worthwhile.
I started my car today after having left it for a month.. it went sorta.. whrowmphlimd.. then on the next struggling revolution from the starter motor.. it started. Huzzah! Seems to be running consistantly nicely now too (touch wood) so I guess it likes the idea of being given to Dad. I’ve decided that it’s worth to me what I owe to Dad, and Dad agrees so we’re all happy. It also means I can drive it around the nice country roads when I go down and visit… there’s whatsathingy to my doobiewhatsit…
In case you’re wondering, any strange rambling that appears (rather like in the last entry) is just crap spouting from my head. They’ll never be allegories, euphamisms or metaphors.. unless I tell you otherwise. Sometimes it just has to go somewhere is all.
In gaming related news, Left4Dead is still excellent fun; I’m WoWing a bit again; Zelda is still on my DS to be played whenever (quiet times while working I’d say); Bioshock, Aquaria and World of Goo are waiting in the wings.
So the holiday.. I visited Melbourne to see Dad, his wife and their dog for Christmas and was met there by my sister and Nanna.. it was nice. They live about as far out of Melbourne as is possible while still technically being metro area. Their dog is named Christmas, he is a standard poodle. He’s actually a really great dog.. before I met him I never knew they were so smart. Tops. From there it was to Perth to see everyone else for a couple of weeks, I got to see most of the people I want to catch up with, but some missed out.. sorry folks! I also forgot to take any photos of Elsie (the olds’ new dog) or the olds’ house now that it’s all finished and lovely. Oops. Next time, next time… it was nice seeing everyone and eating super tasty best ham ever in the whole world, anyway. Even with moving those 130 limestone blocks… Also, playing Apples to Apples and Pictionary with most of the gang was great fun.. ‘specially cos we kicked arse at Pictionary. Whoo! Go Team AWESOME!
Now I’m back, finding out what the year holds for me.. In the short term I’ll be leaping out of a plane, beyond that.. who knows..
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Jan 07 2009
things without meanings
There was this guy once, that went to a place. It was an unremarkable place, having only average trees, average rocks, and average pathways. There was an average corner shop that sold average drinks and average food. The average people drove average cars to average places to work average jobs. The guy decided that this place wasn’t very interesting, so he moved on. The average people in the average place barely noticed him coming and going, so preoccupied they were with the average things they did. They kept on with their average routines, neither pleased nor irritated at their lot in life. All until Sunday that is.. On Sunday, everyone had a day off. It was just an average day off though, nothing remarkable happened.. it’s an unremarkable place, after all.
I’m currently on holidays, hence the lack of posting things. I read Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore a few weeks ago whilst on a plane trip or two, which is about people who often seem unremarkable and average yet are generally anything but. Remarkable things happen to them, yet they’re generally taken into stride as calmly and pleasently as a nice cup of tea and a sit down. Well written and rather engrossing, if you’re wanting to see what his writing is all about but feel that The Wind Up Bird Chronicle may be a little long for you, give this one a shot. Just surreal enough to be like no story you’ve read before, yet almost believeable enough to be accepted as readily as the characters portrayed do. Recommended.
I once heard of a guy who had a little device that made a funny little sound. It only had this crappy little speaker in it, so it was hard to tell what the noise really was, or even if it was the noise that the box was intended to make. It seemed purely incidental to me, but thie guy seemed driven to find the meaning behind the noise the box created. Apparently he would just site for hours, staring at the little box, listening to the noise.. One day he just got up and announced that this noise must mean something, and he was the guy to find out what it all meant. I hear he still wanders about, playing the noise at all who’ll listen to it hoping that one day he’ll stumble upon someone who can shed some light on where it came from and what it’s supposed to mean.
Happy new year anyway. Hope it’s a good one, and if it’s not looking like it will be then you’ll just have to try harder. Don’t resolve to do things this year, just make them happen as soon as they’re possible. Remember, if you think too hard about something you’ll never actually do it. Actions bring results, excessive thinking only makes things more complicated than they need to be. Life is generally more simple than you think it is.
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