sw’as

Without Pockets

Update: It’s alive!!

Without Pockets is coming along nicely. Those of you who are really, really on the ball might have noticed that it’s now possible to sign up for a monthly Without Pockets email update, and you can also check out the WP Blog.

The site went live for a few select people last week so that I could get some feedback on the design, and it should go live for real and for the whole world sometime quite soon (like the end of this week). I’ve got a whole bunch of posters going to print tomorrow and plan to do a postering blitz of Brisbane on the weekend^[1].

Here is a sneak preview just for you^[2]:

If you have had thoughts of designing a t-shirt now is a seriously good time to get started. If you’re one of the first few people to submit a design you’re in with a frighteningly good chance at winning $1500 in cash and prizes. No kidding. Head on over to Without Pockets for the details.

The Wedding

Ok, I think the wedding is now actually, totally behind us. sigh^[3] Laura put in a massive thank you card writing effort on the weekend, while I uploaded a bunch of photos for you all to enjoy. If anyone loves us so much that you want to have one or more of those photos printed out for your very own collection just email me with the photo number and I’ll send you a high resolution version you can take down to the photo lab to be printed.

It also won’t be long before all those photos are clogging up my Flickr account and therefore the 1000 words section of this site.

Soccer

Both The Derps^[4] and Nobby’s Nuts^[5] are fresh off humiliating defeats, though the Nobettes are putting on a good show so far this season. For more lively soccer updates and a frighteningly bad birthday tale sink into The Oooze.

My own little world that very few readers here care about

PHP5.2 has just been released with a couple of really neat new features. Notably, ZIP file handling and hooks for tracking file upload progress. Cool.

1. Anyone feel like volunteering to help? You know if you don’t I’ll just ask you to help anyway. And if you refuse, well…I don’t know…I guess I’ll just have to take you out of my will. [↩]
2. And, yes, I know that you pansies with tiny little itty bitty screen resolutions might find that image a little too large to consume…too bad. [↩]
3. Of relief. [↩]
4. That’s the outdoor side. [↩]
5. That’s indoor men’s. [↩]

…I’ve let things slip so that I now have far too many things I want to write about in a good amount of detail that will no longer be worth writing about by the time I get around to it. But I’m going to try.

I got married! Yay!

You may have noticed a couple of pictures that have crept in down the bottom of the page there^[1]. Many more are on their way, but I need time to sort the many thousands of pictures provided by the magic of digital photography and many friends.

To cut an awesome and long (but potentially boring) story short and inadequate, the day was (as it’s supposed to be) perfect. Nothing went wrong. Everything went right. It was pretty damn cool to be able to throw such a huge party and invite 140 of our closest friends and family. I hope to be able to do it again some time.

I can’t say enough about the venue (Sirromet) where the food was brilliant, the service outstanding and the scenery [some other superlative adjective].

There should be some further wedding report when I find the time, but right now it’s nearly 10pm and I’m so ready for bed.

1. If you read this thing in an feed reader of some kind, and I know at least one of you does, then you’ll miss the updates to the photos, unless you also subscribe to my photo stream feed. [↩]

Well, th’ RSVP date has come an’ gone, an’ thar be only a couple o’ stragglers; ‘t looks as tho we be goin’ t’ be havin’ a pretty full restaurant fer th’ reception. By me count we be havin’ twenty swabbies who canna make ‘t, which be more than we thought we’d get but most o’ them be havin’ good excuses, so ’tis arrr.

Th’ buck’s an’ hen’s parties be held on th’ weekend an’ from what I’ve heard, sea dogs an’ land lubbers seems t’ be havin’ had fun. Th’ lasses had a cocktail party on Saturday night while th’ lads spent th’ whole weekend at Straddie.

Aidan an’ Th’ Ooze did a most fantastic job o’ organisin’ ‘t, also a big thanks t’ sea dogs an’ land lubbers who came along fer makin’ ‘t a great weekend. I appreciate ye puttin’ in ‘t effort.

Go check ou’ all th’ photos.

As per usual, Th’ Ooze’s retellin’ o’ th’ tide be a much more interestin’ read so check that ou’ too.

Today is exactly three months out from the big day. It seems barely a few weeks since I wrote the six months out post, and it sure doesn’t seem like we’re that much more prepared. The only big thing we’ve accomplished is booking a celebrant, which basically means all the big things are sorted. A large percentage of the people I talk to about how the preparations are going seem to ask me if I’m nervous. I’m not. I don’t know why I would be. If I were I think it would probably indicate some level of uncertainty about the decision, but there isn’t any. Sure there will be nerves on the day, because I want it to go well, but not because of the ‘getting married’ bit.

I started writing my speech today and I’m thinking already that I may have left my run a little late, especially since my usual public speaking advisor probably doesn’t want help out with the speech this time. The groomsmen are locked in as Aidan, Nathan, Tony and Nathan and I’ve established the Groomsmen’s Mailing List. Aidan, Tony and I are hitting the suit hire places tomorrow morning.

Lydia (who is getting married herself in just 30 days) has agreed kindly to make our cake and we’re very happy she has. We are putting together the ceremony next week while Laura has holidays and I’ve started collecting ideas for the invitations (although I know Laura started doing this months ago. Maybe we should attempt to reconcile our ideas soon).

So what’s left? Well, heaps really and I’m sure I’ve forgotten something but these things, at least, are still to be done:

• Buck’s^[1] party
• Hen’s party^[2]
• Ceremony
• Guest list
• Invitations
• Music
• Cake design
• Suits
• Table settings
• Menu
• Seating arrangements
• Arranging an MC (but we have one of you in mind so watch out)
• Website (yep, I really am a geek), and
• All the stuff I’ve forgotten.

Speaking of music (and I’m getting slightly side tracked here), we asked my probably soon to be cousin in law Bec (no pressure Dan) who is an exceptionally talented and credentialed violinist to play at the ceremony, and she was kind enough to agree. We haven’t decided what we’d like her to play yet, but we’ve been looking so we can give her plenty of notice. One of the pieces of music Laura has mentioned that she likes is Pachelbel’s Canon. I did a quick bit of research into Pachelbel’s Canon and my findings are presented below.

Interestingly, it’s not actually a canon^[3], but even more interestingly, it could be considered the very first one hit wonder of all time. I’m amazed at just how many times and in how many different ways it has been covered, adapted and rearranged. Some notable artists who have incorporated or been influenced by the cord progression presented in Pachelbel’s Cannon include: Bee Gees, Fleetwood Mac, Kylie Minogue^[4], Pet Shop Boys, Green Day, Oasis, Coolio, Back Street Boys/N Sync, Vitamin C^[5], Phil Collins, The Polyphonic Spree, Britney Spears, Mattafix, and more.

That concludes the side track and this post (which, in itself was a side track from all the other, more important things I was doing).

1. There was an argument around here some time back about whether the apostrophe should be before or after the s in Buck’s party. I think I was arguing for after the s, though if that’s the case I’ve now amended my opinion. And we didn’t even start on whether Buck should be considered a proper noun in this context and therefore deserve a capital, but I think I’ve probably got it wrong again. [↩]
2. But that’s obviously not for me to worry about and I’m going to do my very best to avoid running into Laura on hers the way Tony ran into Jiselle. [↩]
3. A contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g. quarter rest, one measure, etc.). Thanks again Wikipedia. [↩]
4. Believe it or not, probably one of my top five favourite pop artists. I’ve been tempted many times to buy that big glossy Kylie book I see occasionally (and usually discounted) while loitering in the music section of book stores. [↩]
5. With Graduation (Friends Forever), which was released in our final year of high school making it the played to death song of choice for our graduation. [↩]