Open Your Ears Wk 13

heart - Bertie Blackman

Aussie artist who has a little bit of variety in her style from pop to indie to remix/dancey stuff, always interesting and unqiue. She isn't your typical beautiful girly type singer but more of a grungy goth style look but without the rough voice

I chose this track coz its reasonably new, off the most recent album at least but I think her popularity should hopefully be on the up!

Heart Utube

a great cover of Siouxise and the banshees "Peek-A-Boo"

myspace.com/bertieblackman has her most recent singles etc, good listening

DIY.D.Zaster

Unfortunately alot of home DIY is based on theory.

We tell ourselves "painting isn't THAT hard", "it's just diverting a water pipe" and the Australian classic "she'll be right, how hard can it be!". Reality begs to differ and while its almost impossible to eliminate hiccups altogether, we do our best to use our experience to keep them to a bare minimum.

Last weekend we were 'weekend warrioring' mums place and while nothing was too difficult, there was an awful lot to get through. Whether it was weariness, boredom or just plain bad luck - reality gave us a wake up call!

1 second Mum was running a bead of no more gaps around the cornice in the laundry and the next she was lying on the tiles. You see, you reach the cornice she was standing on the laundry bench! Just the fall would have been bad enough but in 1 hand she had a dish of water and in the other a sealing gun - not a great combo when your swan diving from 4ft!

After an ambulance ride and several hours in hospital, she came out ok apart from a VERY messed up finger (as pictured!) and some bruising down her side. Quite amazing really given that people (me) have done worse from falling from standing on nothing!

With our impending DIY Easter Extravaganza fast approaching, I can only dream of the injuries and trials we have in front of us. Not much we can do to prepare but top up the insurance/ambo cover and plunge in head first.

Dislocated fingers crossed!
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Bye Bye Balcatta, Enter Edgewater!

Just a notification that our house settlement has become official and Balcatta is merely another history page in our book of life.... ohh.

We're getting the keys this Thursday 1/4 and I've hired a truck for the following Saturday (10th April) to move out. The reason for the week gap is there is some 'decorative' DIY to be completed before we move in and welcome DJ to his/her first home.

So this email is mainly to let you know our new address but also to put out a 'HELP' if your free at all over the Easter break for some DIY action stations or the following Saturday for moving.

The DIY is just wallpaper removal and painting so even if its just 1 day, 1 morning or 1 hour, all help will be appreciated. Its all systems go from dawn on Good Friday so give me a buzz if you can lend a hand. Moving house will be starting around 10am Saturday 10th so again if your free, let us know.

Drinks, food, tools provided and I will also bring a fully qualified heavily pregnant foreman to order you around!

If you would like to know our new address just flick me an email :P

Ciao

Soundtrack Of The Day: Karnivool
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Open Your Ears Wk 12

LazyEye - Silversun Pickups

i'm running a day late in my selection due to the freakstorm last night which gave us no power, so no background just the goods

Youtube LazyEye

myspace.com/silversunpickups has numerous good songs of theirs

youtube Theres no secrets this year

if you like them then you probably already like the Smashing Pumpkins, go listen to Siamese Dream again! GIVE ME SOME LAYERED OVERDRIVEN GEETARRRRRRRRRRRRRS

PS. They are currently supporting MUSE, come get some!

Weekly WTF: Sniper Peephole Decal

Smuggling Tunnels of Gaza

for those who didn't catch 60 minutes last night there was a really interesting story on the Gaza Strip. Not that I normally watch current affairs, it was just on so I happened to watch it, never the less it really sparked my interest.

Firstly this is a totally non-political post as I have ZERO idea of any of the politics behind anything going on in the middle east. Merely an interesting scenario that has arisen

Basically Israel has but a blockade around the Gaza strip since they think Hamas (sp?) are being a bunch of twats smuggling arms and training terrorists. So their solution is to be a bunch of twats and not allow anything that they don't condone in and out of the region.

So the people's solution has been to build tunnels under the walls to smuggle goods into the Strip. From such basics as food and medicine to electronic goods and of course weapons and armour. Now everyone knows this is going on, basically there are about 600 active tunnels operating, each one has a tent at its entrance to cover it. So not exactly hidden. Tunnels go to both Israel and Egypt.

The tunnels are very lucrative for the owner's as the illegal goods will obviously fetch good prices but obviously very risky to build and every now and then when Israel hears of weaponary being smuggled they like to bomb the tunnels

NEWS ARTICLE

so from my perspective the whole situation is just crazy, everyone knows whats going on, Israel aren't stopping it from their side, Egypt are pretending like they don't know or simply don't care and obviously the Gaza people need the goods. Humanitarian aid has to negotiate with the Israeli border security to get the basics across, cement, iron, steel and other vitals to rebuild the housing and buildings destroyed by the bombing done by the Israel army!

Its unfortunate that people need to take such measures to get access to things we take for granted, it sure makes me happy to live in the "lucky country". Its also just as unfortunate that these tunnels used for legitimate items will always be utilised for the much sought after, and more highly lucrative arms trade.

Happy St Pats Day!

Happy St Patricks Day 2010!

To all those that can still see, hope you have a top day and live it up this evening. Feel free to have 1 or 2 pints for me and I'll try and do the same.

I'm off to the pub for a coupla vessels of the dark stuff now which will no doubt fuel the thirst to have a few more after Antenatal class tonight.

Did a bucketload more packing last night and the house is almost wall to wall boxes. Still haven't heard anything more about the house so I can only assume its all moving forward as normal.

Our first home owners grant has been approved so clearly we filled out at least 1 form correctly!

Later players.

And yes, much to my workmates disgust, I have been wearing the hat all day :)

Open Your Ears Wk 11

The Specialist - Interpol

This is a strange entry in itself as maybe most of the people reading this would have heard of this artist. I have been trying to to share "new" music or relatively unknown artists. Interpol aren't as well known as they could/would/should be?

most of the stuff i know & like are from their 2002 debut album "Turn on the bright lights". They are a NY based band forming the post punk revival with the likes of the Strokes. Their songs are very distinctive and you can pick its them from a mile away.

www.myspace.com/interpol for some of their newer music, with The Heindrich Maneuver being a great single off their most recent album

The Specialist - youtube

Stella was a diver and she was always down - youtube probably my favourite Interpol track

check out Leif Erikson and Evil as a couple more songs you may know/enjoy

Relocation Sale: Home Gym

First out of the blocks is the home gym. Will be sad to see it go but there really isn't any room for it at the new place and I don't want to put it outside and let it rust away to uselessness.

Here's the little descriptive blurb I wrote for gumtree.com.au:
- Terrific condition.
- No unpleasant surprises here as it's been very well treated, all padding etc is A1.
- Can email you a few more photos I have here to see the finer details and condition.
- 120 pounds of weight on the back.
- pickup from Balcatta or can deliver for a few extra $$$ if you're really stuck.

It’s not THAT heavy without the weight on the back but very awkward so will require a partial dismantle if you don’t have a ute or trailer. Nothing a socket set and spanner can't handle.

Its basically the old model of this Orbit Gym: http://www.orbitfitness.com.au/Single-Weight-Stack-Home-Gym.html

Let me know if your interested, more milking of online exposure for personal financial gain to come so stay tuned incase something takes your fancy!
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Weekly WTF: Maps Treadmill

This treadmill has a map feed with inclines and terrain so if you want to walk from your place to the shops and back you can feel the burn of the virtual hills.

or you could actually go outside.

Open Your Ears Wk 10

Learnalilgivinalovin - Gotye

aka Wally de Backer originally from Belgium but basically raised in Australia, he is a one man band under the name Gotye and the drummer for the band the Basics

totally a good time man, feel good band and happy go lucky by the looks of things. This is not his most popular song, but I chose it because you are less likely to know it. It was voted in JJJ hottest 100 at number 94 in 2006

playing live in the tripleJ studios : learnalilgivinalovin
myspacey

and it would be wrong not to put a link to hearts a mess, clearly his best song, if you get this clip then please explain to me

3 Fat Ladies

I've hit a little speed bump on my weight loss program in the form of 3 fat ladies.

WiiFit has been my daily form of a weigh-in for the last few months and I'm proud to say that I'm making a lovely downward slope on my profile graph. In the last week I've been happy/relieved about the new house etc and have been having an extra couple of beers to celebrate. This has viciously translated into a perfect flat line against my Wii Mii @ 88.8kg.

Today is the start of new week and 11 hours in, I'm on track! My current weight target is 87.9 by Saturday and I'm confident I should be able to hit it but I'll have to be good whenever I feel like a beer or plonking my ass in front of the idiot box. Kylie might be able to get some moving boxes tomorrow so perhaps a packing workout week will be on the cards for me.

On the baby front, we finally got some bolts and assembled the cot. We also did an inventory checklist so we know exactly what we have and what we don't. The "don't" list is quite small so we're really happy with that.

Other randomness:
- With regard to the "Don't" list, the Baby shower date set for next Saturday, invites to be spammed out later today : P
- Home Gym and Skill Tester - Officially "For Sale"
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Dial M For Murder

For those that know us, or have even spoken to Schmil (my fun and interesting alter ego) you will have heard of the myth, the fallacy nay, the legend that is the dreaded Triple M. The Triple M is the ultimate life flush, the fun stopping and the responsibility starting, the end of your life and the start of someone elses!

Here's the Triple M in no particular order:

M is for Marriage - Anyone who is/was married will know the pain of the wedding. Its one of those times where afterward, you really didn't know why you were so worried about it but nevertheless, the actual planning, lead up and execution is a total life washing machine!

M is for Maternity - As I write this Kylie is 32ish weeks pregnant and getting kicked to hell all day every day. People ask "Oooh have you felt it move?" to which I respond with "You reckon the Haitians felt the f$%king earthquake?". Maternity food processes your life for consumption through a straw!

M is for Mortgage - Only minutes ago we received word that the pest inspection and structural assessment has been completed on our dream home and we're on the home stretch to settlement. At this stage the settlement date is on or prior to the 18th April. Everything is skipping along very quickly so we hope to be in on around April Fools to give us time to do some DIY before our lease expires on the 17th and we have to be moved in! If you want the address, flick me an email.

Without wanting to jinx the final stages of the last M's, Kylie and I have almost done the impossible - Completed a Triple M in a calender year. Why? cos we're insane! BRING IT OWWWWWWWWWWWWN!!!!

Have a great weekend skaters
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Open Your Ears Wk 9

African Beef Smugglers - The Robot Invasion

I know so little about this band so I will not pretend Im a huge fanboy, however all that I do know I have thoroughly enjoyed

They are/were a melbourne based artiste made up of five guys, influenced by a wide genre of artists they are unique in their own sound. So much so I daren't attempt to describe it.

www.myspace.com/therobotinvasion

check out both their tunes, Boildown is just as good, maybe better depending on your musical tastes, but I like the uniqueness of ABS so thats why I chose to feature it

they seem to not be adding new music or have anything much going on of late so they may be defunct, hopefully not.

A clip live at the Rosemount on their Perth tour : warning includes cowbell

Weekly WTF: iPad Pad