| Light and shade |
[Oct. 13th, 2009|09:16 am] |
On the Nedlands foreshore, looking back towards the city. Perth, October 2009. |
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| Dust at Dawn |
[Sep. 24th, 2009|01:59 am] |
I woke this morning to find myself on Mars, thanks to a severe dust storm. For reference, the view from my living room window usually looks more like this. Everything is now covered in a fine, talc-like brown dust. For someone averse to dusting at the best of times this presents quite the challenge. Like much in my life at the moment, it will have to keep until the weekend.
Life has been a little off-balance of late with many things left neglected, not least of which this poor journal. Work has commanded so much of my time that sleep, health and happiness have all suffered, and a recent attempt at exercise has also served to remind me that a stressed 40 year old body really doesn't bounce back like it used to. That said, I have the love and support of incredible friends, and I'm flying back to Perth in a couple of weeks to chill with family. I'm lucky to have so much that's good in my life, I just have to remember to give it the time and care it deserves.
Image: Dust at Dawn, 2009 • Music: September Song by Chet Baker |
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| Layers |
[Jul. 28th, 2009|07:29 pm] |
 (click through to see the full image)
Switching between layers in Photoshop while working on an image, I sometimes come face to face with a moment of accidental and surprising beauty. This is one of them.
Image: Mask Layer #3 (detail), 2009 • Music: Williams' Blood (Aeroplane Dub) by Grace Jones |
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| Down Tools |
[Jul. 22nd, 2009|03:42 pm] |
I am excelling at not getting very much work done this afternoon, even more so than usual. Although I know this will likely mean a hellish Thursday and Friday, I'm currently too distracted by pretty late afternoon clouds to care very much. |
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| Four-O |
[Jun. 4th, 2009|10:47 pm] |
So, this is the last day of my 30's, huh? Well bring on 40, I say. I'm ready. ♥ |
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| Dawn Patrol |
[Feb. 23rd, 2009|05:25 am] |
3:30am and still working.
A strange thing sometimes happens at this hour in my neighbourhood: it falls completely and utterly silent. Considering I live on the doorstep of one of the nightlife hubs of Sydney, it's surprising when it happens. No noise of traffic or drunken girls falling out of nightclubs, their clop-cloping of heels and jangling of 9 karat gold jewellery providing a percussive beat to their caterwauling. Even the crickets and the frogs in the park outside my window, so busy with their sounds of courtship these last few damp nights, are now strangely silent.
My body clock seems to have slipped back into late night mode in the last week or so, triggered by keeping odd hours to meet key deadlines, or possibly from watching too many episodes of True Blood in a row. I quite enjoy these long, late nights of quiet productivity, but dealing with the rest of the working world come sunrise is a harsh reality I'd rather do without. Still, the work keeps coming and shows no sign yet of drying up, which is something I'm thankful for and certainly not taking for granted.
It's now 5am and the first birdcalls have started. My eyes are tired and I'm done working for the night, but happy I just had an IM chat to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sunsmogseahorse who I haven't caught up with for ages. It feels good finishing the night having shared some of the thoughts rattling around in my head with a friend.
Bedtime now. |
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| Domestic travel |
[Jan. 29th, 2009|10:31 pm] |
The past month or so has been an unusually fragmented start to the new year. Christmas was spent with family in Brisbane, Queensland, some of whom I'd not seen for more than a decade. This proved to be both delightful and confronting in equal measure. Then it was back to Sydney for a low-key but perfect New Years Eve, followed by a very ugly week of work deadlines piled one on top another. Then, an escape to Perth to visit my Mum and sister for a week's break was all but ruined by two jobs that, zombie-like, refused to stay dead and buried. It was indeed a strange feeling working through the night, back at the same desk in the bedroom that had been mine 20 years earlier.
So here I am at the end of the first month of a new year, feeling like parts of me are still stuck somewhere in mid-December 2008, trying to catch up. I made a point of only travelling with carry-on baggage for all my flights, yet I can't shake the feeling that there's a lone suitcase grinding around and around on a conveyor belt somewhere, waiting to be claimed.
Image: Dusk over Perth, Western Australia • Music: A Time for Love by Shirley Horn |
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| Meet my doppelgänger |
[Dec. 19th, 2008|12:29 pm] |
Well, not exactly, but as mutleyjames, omenode and Kel said the first time they saw this ad, there's something about his expressions that are eerily similar. Now that I've finally tracked down the ad on Youtube and seen it for myself, I would have to agree. This both amuses and disturbs me for reasons I can't quite explain.
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| Happy 8-bit Thanksgiving |
[Nov. 28th, 2008|11:57 am] |
Happy 8-bit Thanksgiving, my North American friends. Please help yourself to the rasterized Meleagris: it's low on pixel count and calories!
Work is riding my ass hard this Friday, but I'm catching up with some of my favourite LJ peeps over the next couple of days, including the wonderful mikeybill tomorrow evening. Should be the makings of a fun weekend. |
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| What's in a name? |
[Nov. 22nd, 2008|07:43 pm] |
Well, when it comes to butfirst, not a lot actually. About the time that I'd decided to dip my toes in the LJ waters, I'd also come across this amusing bit of fluff on teh internets:
Being stumped for an LJ username that would be the perfect embodiment my dazzling wit, sophistication and intelligence, I settled on the battle cry of the Chenbot for my 'test' account, reasoning that if I took a shine to this journaling thing that I would start a 'proper' journal with a well-considered username. Well, almost two years and one ridiculous innuendo-laden username later, I couldn't be happier.
What's in your LJ username? |
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| An evening with friends |
[Nov. 17th, 2008|03:04 am] |
   
 
curskineville, easy_b_jesus, ishtasm, Kel, mutleyjames, omenode and I all ended up spending an impromptu Saturday evening together at the boys' new place just down the road from mine. The evening was balmy, the mood relaxed and the wine and conversation flowed with ease. Trips were made to the rooftop to admire the view, especially out across Elizabeth Bay towards the Navy shipyard, blanketed in light haze and bathed in the golden light of sodium vapor lamps. We said goodnight to the boys at about 1.30am, I saw Curskineville and Ishtasm off in a cab, then walked the short distance up the street back to my place. Sleep came quickly, and it was blissful. |
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| Tracing |
[Nov. 12th, 2008|04:55 pm] |
curskineville in his Bon Jovi T, on a red background. This is a reworked version of a quick & dirty traced illustration I did for a post of his. Nothing special, but it made for a fun 10 minute distraction from work, and I think the block colours work well.
Music: Love Comes Running Up That Hill Quickly by Placebo vs. Pet Shop Boys vs. Kate Bush |
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| Beard |
[Nov. 9th, 2008|11:46 am] |
( another here... )
( ...and here. )
Well, November's here and things are getting kinda hairy, and that's actually a good thing. Movember, an Australian initiative which has spread internationally in the last few years, encourages men to grow their facial hair for the month of November as a fund and awareness-raising activity for men's health. Funds raised here in Australia are in support of prostate cancer research and men's depression, both important and worthy causes which I'll be contributing to again this year. As a substantial bonus, Sydney gets exponentially hotter as guys who were previously clean-shaven transform into stubblier, then hairier versions of themselves: it's like Chia Pets meets 70s Colt.
November I discovered is also Beard Appreciation Month or No Shave November in the United States. That, and the beard meme floating around LJ at the moment has prompted me to share some shots of mine. The red is definitely the Scottish side of my heritage showing through, though there's no real consistency to any of my hair colour elsewhere. |
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| Painting with light |
[Nov. 4th, 2008|04:04 pm] |
Click through to the larger version
This is a painterly adaptation I was inspired to do of an original photograph by the talented mondragon. You can see his original photograph on his post here (NSFW). I was struck by how much the beautiful light & shadow he'd captured reminded me of a Caravaggio or Rembrandt. Generally, I'm no fan of 'artistic' photo adaptations of the photoshop-watercolour-filter-over-a-picture-of-a-basket-of-kittens variety, but I felt that both the subject and the lighting here lent themselves well to a hand-worked adaptation. That, and I needed to take a break from retouching endless resort & bikini pictures for the next issue of Vogue, as beautiful as they may be.
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| It was poison! |
[Oct. 26th, 2008|11:05 pm] |
If you remember Quincy M.E., you may just get a kick out of this:
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