sw’as

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.

I am slowly but surely getting closer to being able to put something more than a placeholder page up at http://withoutpockets.com.

The underlying code for the site is coming along nicely and I hope to have something to show my select group of testers later this week. But what I’m really struggling with is coming up with a design for the site. I have mapped out some general principles that I’d like to follow with the design, but I’m finding it difficult to get any inspiration that will get me off the ground.

Back when the name for Without Pockets was first conceived, Aidan came up with a little character which was quickly dubbed “Mr. Pockets”. While it looks as though we probably won’t use Mr. Pockets in the design I’m going to explore that idea of having some kind of creature as the logo for Without Pockets.

In an effort to force some inspiration I’m going to design a new and different creature each day for the next five days and post them here. Maybe it will lead somewhere, maybe it won’t. If you love or hate any of the creatures tell me. If you’re feeling particularly creative (and maybe a little bored) you too can have a crack at designing a logo for Without Pockets. Who knows, maybe I’ll want to use it.

Update: I should make it clear that these creatures in themselves were never intended to be a logo per se (thank god!) but merely to get me thinking a little more creatively. I think it’s kind of working, though I’m quickly learning that creating original drawings isn’t my forte^[1].

Monday’s Creature

Ok, I didn’t think this through. At all.

These things are going to be ugly. I always intended that they be just quick an dirty sketch type creatures, but I didn’t anticipate them being quite so dirty.

This is the first time I’ve done such an exercise and I should have known it wouldn’t be safe to do in public. It’s clear from my first effort that I’m going to quite significantly embarrass myself. Anyway, what the hell. I name this ugly beast Tipsy and I hope it dies without coming back to haunt me.

Tuesday’s Creature

So today’s creature is not so much a ‘creature’ and more of a character. He’s pretty rough I have to admit, but I only managed to spend a few minutes at work scratching him onto a post-it note. Anyway, I name this one Jake.

Jake isn’t as ugly as Tipsy, which is definitely good. And while he’s not drunk, he’s probably just as unstable due to his exceptionally high centre of gravity.

By the way, some people seem to think Tipsy is male, but I’m pretty sure she’s female. Stay tuned for Wednesday’s installment.

Wednesday’s Creature

Since it’s now Thursday and I still haven’t posted Wednesday’s creature, it’s clear that I’m doing very badly at this challenge in more than one way. It looks as though I might now get to the final three until next week for a variety of reasons^[2], but stay tuned, I already have ideas and they will be forthcoming.

1. Obviously, I knew that already, but I would like to be a little better at it. At least good enough so that I don’t totally embarrass myself if I try. Obviously I’m not there yet. [↩]
2. Soccer tonight, bucks party starting tomorrow, weekend away, etc. [↩]

Since I’m having trouble finding the time to post anything, I thought it might be quicker to do a top five type post rather than ramble and bore people.

1. The Music

Ok, so that should be obvious, but if I did a top five and didn’t bunch all the music into one item, there’d be nothing but music. The stand out act for me was Scissor Sisters who put on an awesome show. Grinspoon came second and other acts I really enjoyed include The Grates, The Avalanches, Something for Kate^[1], The Presets and Brian Wilson.

2. The Coincidences^[2]

The number of coincidences we encountered was increadible. We ran into a long lost friend from high school, Sarah. That’s coincidental because I had brought her up in conversation earlier in the day, after not thinking or talking about her for maybe two years! It was awesome to catch up with here and find out that her boyfriend (get ready for the next coincidence) is none other than Mike D, who Browny and I did a huge assignment with at uni a couple years back. On top of all that, on the first night we dropped into the movie shed they had set up only to find I [Heart] Huckabees playing, which for the uninitiated, is all about coincidences.

3. Running into Sarah

That was just way cool, we spent a bunch of time hanging out with her, Mike and all their friends at their most awesome Mexican themed camp.

4. Possibly being on Channel V

Mid way through Sunday, a Channel V crew came through the Mexican themed camp and did an interview with Sarah and checked it all out. I don’t know if any of it actually went to air (it was supposed to have on Friday) but if anyone recorded it I’d like to see.

5. Hanging out with Aidan for the weekend

It’s always fun hanging out with Aidan, but combine that with music and fun (two things we both love) and it makes for a great weekend.

If this had been a top ten, vikings and mud would both definitely have made the list.

1. I’m not really a fan of Something for Kate, but they put on a great live show. [↩]
2. Thanks to Aidan for the pictures. [↩]

I never seem to be able to write up events in my life and stick them here in a timely manner. Soon all my posts may be best categorised before I forget^[1].

So, since last time lots of stuff has happened.

Without Pockets

I’ve started working for myself from home two days a week as of July in an effort to start a new business. I hope to launch in early October just after the wedding, I hope that is a realistic time frame. Look for something more interesting than nothing at withoutpockets.com.au soon. I’m still debating with myself on the best domain name to use. I’ve registered withoutpockets.com, withoutpockets.net, without-pockets.com, without-pockets.net and withoutpockets.com.au. Ultimately, they will all point to the same place, but I will only advertise one, so what do you think?

Adventures in the Underground

Last Friday evening I went into the underground on my first urbex^[2] photography treck. Aidan, Gibbs and I went exploring in Brisbane’s storm water drain system and I got what I recon are some killer shots. I can’t wait for the next when I vow to be heaps more prepared, especially with the lighting kit I take.

Check out all the photos in 1000 Words or with this lovely Flickr slide show.

The highlight was almost certainly finding, identifying and looking up the “Buranda Chimney.” I can only find one other picture of it on the ‘net, but certainly not one of the inside.

I’ve also been to Melbourne since my last post and have started uploading some photos.

1. A category which really does need more posts anyway. I do have at least three drafts of stuff I’m rapidly forgetting just waiting to be cleaned up and published. [↩]
2. A little known (for now) term meaning ‘urban exploration.’ [↩]