Royal playlist

Last night we had Kara's 30th birthday party, with a "Kings and Queens" theme.

Here's the playlist we put together, then put on shuffle and repeat...

Apocalyptica - Hall Of The Mountain King
Audio Adrenaline - Kings And Queens
The Classic Crime - Flight Of Kings
Coldplay (feat. Rihanna) - Princess Of China
Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream
Gipsy Kings - Hotel California [Spanish Mix]
Chris Isaak - King Without A Castle
John Mayer - Queen Of California
Kings Of Convenience - I Don't Know What I Can Save You From
Kings Of Leon - Closer
Mahotella Queens - Mbube
MxPx - Kings Of Hollywood
Elvis Presley ("The King") - A Little Less Conversation (JXL single version)
Prince - The Song Of The Heart
Prince - 1999
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen - Princes Of The Universe
Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure
Snow Patrol - Fallen Empires
Soulframe - Graceful Royal
Third Day - King Of Glory
30 Seconds To Mars - Kings And Queens
U2 & B.B. King - When Love Comes To Town (Live)
Will Smith - The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air
Wolfmother - California Queen

A Day at the Movies

On a hot (not even summer yet) day off, there's nothing quite like going to your local shopping centre and having a double-movie day (using discount cards to full advantage!) with the Mrs.

Being members at our local RSL gets us movie tickets for $9.50 ($14.50 full price), and Star Cinema for $13 ($22 full price). After a quick breakfast, it was time for the first movie of the day.

Looper (MA)

"Time travel hasn't been invented yet. But 30 years from now, it will have been..."

Seaplane

So, I have this in my collection...

Aeroplane (from the LEGO City Airport set)

I then took it partially apart, removed 2 fuselage segments, moved the wings, and with the help of additional pieces, made...

A seaplane!

End of the season

I'm a relative newcomer to rugby league. I started watching State Of Origin games in about 1997/1998, and have watched that competition every year since. But it was only in about 2010 that I really started to watch any regular season NRL games on TV, and in 2011 I went to my first live game at Suncorp Stadium.

Over the course of 2011, Kara would watch the Friday night footy with me as well. Earlier this year, as a Valentine's Day outing, she bought tickets to the first Broncos home game of the 2012 season. The Broncos lost to the Cowboys, but it was a good night out, and Kara enjoyed her first live experience of rugby league.

The deal we got for the first game led to a discounted offer on season tickets for the rest of the home games - which we jumped at. This is the first time either of us have had season tickets to a sport of any kind. With free shuttle buses, and free travel on Brisbane Transport buses and all the trains, it's easy to get to the games, and even easier to get home. The choices of food at the stadium are reasonable considering, and sometimes we take our own food, like sandwiches, or cheese and crackers. All in all, it's a cheap date night.

My wife, the rugby league convert - note the cap and scarf in Broncos colours!

Operation: Malcolm, part 1...

I'm a big believer in creating your own costumes, rather than renting. Partly because half the fun is in the chase, but mostly because this way you're guaranteed make sure everything fits.

Anyway, last week I did a bit of shopping to see if I could put together a Captain Malcolm Reynolds outfit. If you don't recognise the name, stop, and go watch Firefly now. All of it.

(Done? OK, I'll continue.)

I have no upcoming costume parties, birthday or otherwise, and I'm not planning on attending any cosplay/sci-fi convention events in the near future. This was just because I could. And because Firefly was just so gorram awesome.

For a little over $50 at Kmart and Big W, I got pants, braces, a belt, and boots. I couldn't find a decent shirt in the right shade of reddish-brown, so I went with an old maroon-ish business shirt I had in the wardrobe.

Leg up (on the bathtub) in a very Captain Mal pose, to show off the entire outfit.

More pictures below.

Roar Final 2012

A sea of orange!

I just got home from my first Brisbane Roar (football, aka soccer) game - the season's Grand Final against Perth Glory.

After multiple hassles (including a no-show bus and a half-hour walk to a train station), I got to the stadium just minutes after kickoff. Still nil-all at half time, Perth scored early in the second half, but then Brisbane equalised and followed that up with a penalty goal in injury time.

Brisbane Roar - A-League champions 2011 and now 2012!

Lego Oil Tanker

Here's something I made recently.

The hull is obviously from a Police set - I'm not going to remove (or "Photoshop out") the decals for the sake of accuracy. Basically, I used parts from:

A police rescue boat
A police double-rotor rescue chopper
A garbage truck
A fishing boat

And turned them into THIS!

The oil tanker from above.

Looking down the ship to the stern.

The Captain on the bridge.

Two Lego City labourers who look like they could pass as tanker crew...

Starboard side.

The stern.

The Captain at the controls.

A view over the Captain's shoulder, through the windows to the deck below.

The bridge from above.

Another aerial view.

Looking down the ship.

Sailor on a boat. T-Pain sold separately.

Cruising along...

My outboard motor.

One 1x1 square clip, one walkie-talkie, and one gear-stick = Outboard motor!

Cutting oil tankers off in traffic isn't very nice.

Rugby League vs American Football

Some rugby league rules:

• Don't "shepherd" players (ie no physically keeping defense players away from your team's player who has the ball).
• You can only tackle the guy who has the ball.
• Don't throw the ball forward.
• The ball must touch the ground across the goal line to score.

Some American football rules...

• Read rugby league rules above, then:
• Break them all.

:)

My top albums from 2011

Once again, my perfect CD would be by an African Christian reggae/metal band made up of female singer-songwriters...

My 2011 top 10, in order of release:

Vusi Mahlasela - Say Africa

Jeff Martin 777 - The Ground Cries Out

Becoming The Archetype - Celestial Completion

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

Seeker Lover Keeper - Seeker Lover Keeper

Trivium - In Waves

Jeff Bridges - Jeff Bridges

Opeth - Heritage

Mastodon - The Hunter

Switchfoot - Vice Verses

Honourable mentions: The Lonely Island's "Turtleneck & Chain" (Jack Sparrow!), and Alice Cooper's sequel album, "Welcome 2 My Nightmare".

Hanna - The Chemical Brothers

I saw the film "Hanna" recently and two things struck me.

1. Visually, there are so many scenes (particularly chase sequences) that are beautifully framed, shot, and edited together. One of those movies you could really watch without any sound at all, and not really care.

Except for...

2. The soundtrack, provided by The Chemical Brothers. Think "Run Lola Run" Euro-techno meets 80s John Carpenter synths. Much of the opening (and closing) "Hanna's Theme" reminds me of more African rhythms, such as kora music from Mali. I'm not much of a techno person, I must admit, beyond its use in films like this and the aforementioned "Run Lola Run", where the music choice definitely adds to the urgency of the scenes. I listened to the soundtrack all the way to work today, and all the walk home as well.

I love a good score that works as an instrumental album in its own right, and this is one of them. Top marks.