Subtle Yet Sheep

Podiatry First

2009-12-12T13:28:00.002+11:00

I've pretty much abandoned this blog due to being more active on Twitter & Facecrook.

Anyhow I've just helped Sian my brothers girlfriend partially set up her a site using wordpress as the CMS. I'm becoming a major fan of wordpress beacause of amount of quality themes and awesome plugins. So I figured I'd give Sian some link love. If you need a quality podiatrist in Auckland I would give Sian a call. She's located in Ponsonby & offers a range podiatry treatments.

2009 link love

2009-01-04T15:36:00.003+11:00

So I have been off air for a while due to a multitude of reasons that I won't go into now. I thought I would start 2009 by throwing a couple of links out to some worthy sites.

The first is for a fitness mad mate of mine who trains like a demon & has been using kettle bells as a training tool for a while. He has set up a site full of reviews of dvds & has pulled together some excellent kettlebell training videos. So if you are into progressive training techniques or just want to find out exactly what Kettlebells are for check out Kettlebellsydney.com.au .

Next I wanted to throw a few links to a South coast catering business run by a mate of mine Jonny. Jonny is a legend in the kitchen and produces some seriously nice food as well as being an all round good guy and a mad keen surfer. If you are planning a wedding or function on the south coast ofI NSW I would give Citrus catering a call.

The last link is to Medecins sans frontiers who are one of my favourite charities. I really like how they are non denominational with no religious or political agenda and they pretty much are on the front lines at all of the worlds most dangerous and horrible places. I don't know what they would want to rank for so I'm running with Independent Medical-Humanitarian charity. If you have $50 spare or can afford a regular monthly donation I would urge you to give them your cash as they really do make a difference.

Well I'm going surfing.

Ridiculously perfect Indonesian waves

2008-07-11T20:55:00.003+10:00

The title says it all. Looking at these photos whilst laid up on the couch with sniffles and general feelings of malaise makes me want to be in Indonesia right now.

These smoking shots are stolen from surfingthemag.com

10 excuses for not updating your blog

2008-07-06T18:04:00.004+10:00

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please find following a series of lame excuses for why this digital scratch pad has been a barren wasteland of content recently:

The surf has been good
I have been surfing a lot ;)
I have started a new exercise regime to try and balance my creaky body and improve myself thanks to Levity Health
(spot of link love)
I have been an inhabitant of the procrastination nation
I have half started writing things but then destroyed my ideas with a salvo of excoriating self doubt and moody lazyness
I'm sometimes flighty and prone to sporadic fickle attention spans
I've been trying to help my beautiful beyonce plan our wedding
I've been creating crap lists but not publishing them
I've been planning a last minute trip to Hawaii courtesy of my good friend Kev (AKA the gooch) - (more on this topic to come I imagine).
All of the above

Yours Sincerely the owner of this Blog

This Blog is not abandoned

2008-07-06T18:00:00.003+10:00

It just looks that way.

A beginners guide to dub step

2008-06-08T13:32:00.006+10:00

I've been sifting through my analytics data and the most popular piece of content I have written was about dub music . I thought I would continue in a similar vein and provide an intro into the world of dubstep.

Dubstep is a dark brooding, minimal (at times), bass heavy experimental musical genre that Originated in the UK underground but is spreading across the gobe. As a musical style it tips its hat to traditional dub reggae, drum n bass/jungle, weird clattery sparse electronica, UK garage, grime and even elements of breaks and Techno.

A good jumping off point to explore this genre is Mary Anne Hobbs bbc radio one show which can be a challenging listen at times but also delivers serious gold (best listened to via IE as it seems to have issues with Firefox when listening outside the UK). Mary Anne has been seriously championing this sound since 2006 and is helping push it to the world. I have a copy of the Warrior Dubz compilation she produced a few years back. There are a a couple of cracking tunes that in my mind help define this genre with my favourites being The Digital Mystikz tune Anti-War dub, , Bengas tune Music Box, Burials tune Versus and a number of other gems. Probably my favourite tune from this genre is Burials tune "Unite" which is on his myspace page, I personally think its amazing.

The thing I like about some dubstep is the sparse moody sound, the beats and the blatant disregard for and commercial sensibilities. The downside of this adventurous production approach is at times the bass lines can be harsh, paranoid, heavy as F**K and almost un-listenable and it can all be a bit too much.

If you like your tunes on the more bass heavy side of things the dub step underworld is well worth an explore and if you have an internet connection it is all so easy. Other pages to check for a listen include:

Kulture - I heard a wicked track of theirs/his "Vitamin D" on Mary Anne Hobbs show.
Skream - A huge name in the scene
NZ Dubstep - This style has taken hold in NZ, Kiwis dig bass heavy styles

Well enjoy the dub step for dummies guide I'm going surfing

New Improved Blogger Page Title Hacks

2008-05-22T19:48:00.004+10:00

After discovering to my horror that the page titles on this blog had reverted to the dreaded "blog title: post title" format which is the bane of semantic indexing and plays havoc with click through rates in search engines. Thus I was forced to edit the code of this blog again.

I decided to see if anyone had produced any updated code that would create decent titles while still allowing me to manipulate the page elements without breaking the page (which was a previous massive failure of the code I linked to in my previous page title post). Anyway I stumbled upon this awesome piece of code hackery that will easily let you to swap xml blogger page title's (thanks Archit !). This is a great piece of code and is super simple to install. I swear that if the world becomes the internet then brilliant indian devs/programmers like Achit (& Kunaal) will build it.

Yes I am a wannabe Geek!

Software used to bust sly sickies

2008-05-21T20:36:00.008+10:00

I noticed this article in the Sydney Morning Herald about voice analysis software that can identify if you are lying when chucking a sickie. Apparently the software has been rolled out by an organisation in the UK which has saved them squillions. I'm no fan of people taking heaps of sick days to take the piss - in fact I personally haven't taken a suspect sickie in years but this reeks of big brother and is a little terrifying. On the upside maybe this opens the door for voice modulation products to use when calling up to throw a sickie to lay on the couch so you can finish the final stages of GTA IV.

www.disguisemysickdaylies.com is available for any budding entrepreneurs....

Give Six Ounce Surfboards your money

2008-05-18T19:16:00.006+10:00

I caught up with Ben at Six Ounce Surfboards on Saturday and was reminded of why he is such a dead set legend. Ben was kind enough to play the role of "ding whisperer*" for me and sort out some minor cracks and tail damage to three of my boards that I have purchased from him over the past 3 or 4 years. I have basically been delaying this life admin task due to slackness and a consistent run of surf over the past couple of months.

Anyway Ben worked his ding whispering magic and hey presto the majority of my quiver was back in top form, Benny also would only except payment in Beer (coopers pale) and minor cash which I think is amazing for someone trying to pay the rent and feed his Hugs N Kisses and two kids. So in return I thought I would do the charitable thing and tell the 4 whole visitors I get to this blog each day what an exceptional human being Ben is and that if you are planning on buying a minimal surboard bondi or a longboard bondi then go see Ben and give him some money (not beer as Barnaby is too young to drink).

Oh and don't for a minute think from the link text that I ride any retro hemp smelling craft, I am a short board fascist kind of guy although my daily ride is a little fatter to deal with the lurch burgers that the Eastern suburbs frequently dishes out. The anchor text selection is purely based on my thoughts of what kind of things prospective customers might be throwing into Google when trying to hunt down a reputable surf shop in Bondi.

Anyway the swell should be building over night due to a nice Tasman low pressure system. Check the explosion in the WAM below courtesy of Coastalwatch

*A ding whisperer is a human who is like a horse whisperer of Surfboards that have magnificent powers to magically restore boards back to a sleek non busted up state. Favour should be curried with these talented wizards of resin by any keen surfer with poor ding repair skills (like me).

Trying to get Base Pizza to rank

2008-05-18T18:44:00.003+10:00

As the title says I'm trying to get my favourite outsourced dinner provider Base Pizza to rank as it annoys me when I try and find them in Google and they are nowhere to be seen. I figure a link may assist as their site is shocking from a search perspective committing a number of basic crimes against semantic markup (or lack thereof). Anyway hopefully this link will make it easier to find and order one of their excellent Spanish seafood pizzas ;)

Major Calling - I'm listening

2008-05-15T20:21:00.004+10:00

I came across this spot of random today at www.majorcalling.com/ it appeals to my sense of humour and appreciation of the random.

Drunk Vader suprise Jedi attack

2008-05-15T20:00:00.004+10:00

Something about this news article makes me piss myself laughing.

It might be the randomness of an alcoholic wearing a bin bag brandishing a crutch, ineffectually attacking the founding members of the Holyhead (wales) branch of the Jedi Church who were filming a light sabre battle that reeks of the absurd.

Hollywood can't script stuff this far off the randometer.

*And no I don't advocate violence - especially not from the welsh boozy sith against Jedi knights/students

Cervinia Snow Envy

2008-05-11T13:45:00.009+10:00

As I mentioned in my last erratic post my Beyonce went on holidays to Europe courtesy of her extremely generous bestie Caria-Canaria. They visited a ski resort in Northern Italy on the border with Switzerland called Breuil Cervinia and it would be accurate to say that they got amazing snow.

View Larger Map
Check the terrain and satellite options in the g-map above to get an idea of altitude and set up

I'm so green with envy that I almost look like Fredo the frog, although I was slightly consoled with a stash of booty including Top Man t-shirts (No I don't try and dress like an electro, emo, wannabe beatles member at a rave), Qantas PJs from Business class and some Man-fume (the copy is hilarious for this - talk about selling lifestyle aspiration in a bottle) .

Anyway I realised that this blog has been significantly image deficient so I thought I would borrow a few images to add some more unique content.

Cervinia sounded like an awesome high rolling winter wonderland with great snow, comfy accommodation, nice food and runs up to 22km long to get your legs warmed up. The location on the Swiss Border meant that My Beyonce and Caria-Canaria skied into Switzerland from Italy one day (as you do) which sounded awesome although the 3-4 k's of t-bars coming back didn't sound so much fun (for those not in the know extended periods on t-bars and pommels=pain). Check the pics to get an idea of how epic this place looks.

Looks like awesome snow to me

Top of the world - a long way from Sydney

Caria-Canaria Living large

Anyway for other Ski oriented ramblings check my Snow Biz post from last year full of pirates, terrorists and super good Perisher.

Surfing is Good

2008-04-26T11:46:00.003+10:00

The surf is absolutely cracking today in Sydney. I surfed a little known secret spot called Maroubra with a frothing pack of other dudes. I got a couple of fun ones and also got severely drilled duckdiving by a number of friendly bone rattling 4 foot peaks of doom. I love surfing in Autumn and winter when the winds switch after being onshore for days, and just like flicking a switch pretty much the whole east coast of Australia from the Victorian boarder to the Sunshine coast is pumping. There is something beautiful about the cool water, the smell of salt, the crisp mornings and the thrill of clean thumping waves that makes me feel alive at a cellular level. Well time for breakfast, my beyonce is back from a high rolling ski trip to Europe paid for extremely generously by her bestie Caria-Canaria.

Eat now, then more waves, then DJ Markie later for some Brazilian infused D & B warmth.

Good times.

Logistics Reality Checkpoint

2008-04-20T11:28:00.003+10:00

I have this album on heavy rotation at the moment. I recently discovered Logistics by subscribing to Hospital records excellent podcast produced by Hospitals boss Tony Colman (aka London Elektricity who is also wicked producer and funny d'n b geezer). Anyway I decided to lash out and by this album on Beatport and it is fricken wicked. It features some nice big slabs of warm bass and wicked tight drum pattern production. To me the album is all killer with very little filler.

If you like well produced beats check logistics myspace in the link above or subscribe to hospitals podcast as it's generally more hit than miss and Tony digs shapeshifter which means he's OK in my books ;)

Salmonella Bud Dogs

2008-04-20T11:02:00.004+10:00

My Mates The Sniffer Dogs supported Salmonella Dub last night at the Metro. It was a wicked Gig and and it was very cool to see the dogs playing a big venue. The dogs killed it and had the crowd moving and hopefully introduced some more people to their comedy/dub/reggae/riddim bizness. Bud Spells also supported and I liked some of their tunes although a couple of numbers veered towards being a dub steppy paranoid racket which is cool I guess (if you're into that kind of thing). They did rinse out a drum and bass number which I loved.

Salmonella Dub played a pretty laid back set that verged on kind of ambient dub. I didn't realise but Tiki Taane left the group a year ago which changed the dynamic in a live environment. They had a dude playing a sampler who I heard later was Paddy Free who is one half of electronic kiwi producers pitch black . It sounds like he has influenced Salmonella Dubs sound as it has taken an ambient, repetitive almost trance like quality. I really liked the visuals these guys had during the show as it highlighted some of the finer points of New Zealands amazing landscape and nature. At one point I wondered if the visuals had been commissioned by Tourism NZ.

Anyway all in all it was a good gig with more than one mad kiwi dub fan moving to the beat...

Click ads grow trees with Ecocho

2008-04-16T21:20:00.004+10:00

Some smart people I work with have just launched a search engine called Ecocho which is basically an "eco" search engine. How it works is that for every 1000 searches on Yahoo (via Ecocho) and every 2000 searches on Google (again via Ecocho) up to 2 trees will be planted via a carbon offsetting partner. A few people at TechCrunch have been bagging it out but from what I've seen all offsetting/tree planting is audited by KPMG so the process is legit. In a nut shell if you search via ecocho you get the same results as Google & Yahoo but you can be confident that you are contributing to carbon offsetting which is admittedly not as good as carbon reduction but its a step in the right direction. Anyway check it out its as valid a place to search as any of the other engines.

Later

Blogger gimcrackery

2008-04-12T07:33:00.002+10:00

Yes if you are reading this occasionally you may notice that my post about Portugal disappeared. I am having problems with Blogger and It looks like (semi skilled) hacks I made to the code of a surfing mag photo gallery farked the pagination of everything else. I guess I just gave some splogs free content. Anyway back to my hangover and tinkering. Will. Post. Soon.

The Four Hour work week

2008-03-16T17:36:00.004+11:00

I have just started reading Timothy Ferris's book the 4 Hour work week and It is fricken amazing. The guy basically has a Spartans dedication to de-cluttering his life and tweaking and modifying all his life admin so that he spends a tiny amount of quality time on his work/business projects whilst yielding the maximum results. I am only part of the way through the book but I am already a rabid proponent of his school of thought. His blog is awesome as well with tips on everything from auto responders, streamlining his breakfast processes to optimising his workout and diet to deliver the highest possible yields. I'm probably in the first flushes of a man crush, but I think Tim is a definite thought leader in terms of lifestyle optimisation and anyone who advocates chasing down life experiences that make you feel alive on a molecular level throughout life as opposed to waiting for retirement is freaking awesome in my books. I will keep you posted on all gains made to my lifestyle by following Tim's tips - Who knows I may outsource the gathering and construction of content of this blog to a verbose, surfing mad, virtual assistant who appreciates a nice bass line and drum pattern ;)

This post has been partially created by DJ Patife whose myspace page I have been checking out listening to which has some very nice smooth Brazilian beats.

Well I'm going for swim. Check ya later.

Faster than the speed of rumours

2008-03-09T16:39:00.005+11:00

This post finds moi merrily typing from the comfort of my own couch sans wires on my lappie due to some amateur tech network jiggery pokery yesterday. As previously mentioned me and my beyonce had broadband connected to our unit so we now have super fast web access. I decided to further enhance the experience by adding a wireless router for a bit of mini wireless LAN action - (oh listen to the wannabe tech geek pepper his sentences with network jargon that he barely grasps.)

It was a challenging process complete with frustration (swearing), intermittent connections and
fairly poor networking on my behalf. Finally after an hour and a half I got the thing to work and have been savouring wireless internet faster than the speed of rumours.

Well this post is going nowhere fast I shall retreat to other sites to calm my short attention span and desire for new content

The dreaded weed

2008-03-07T13:13:00.002+11:00

One of my (work)mates Ski-mon (mentioned here) is embarking on a journey to try and quit smoking ciggies. He has tried all manner of techniques ranging from shock therapy through to Tantric crosswords and is now trying some kind of super high tech pharmaceutical concoction that cures you of smoking but turns you into a werewolf (or something like that).

Anyway Ski-mon is documenting his pursuit to give up the dreaded weed on his champix blog so I thought I would throw a link his way.

I personally* hate cigarettes and wish they had never invented as they are the equivalent of a handbrake to your health and finances. Having said that I used to smoke and can appreciate how hard it is to give up.

I hope Ski-mon is successful and I also hope the pills don't make him start listening to my chemical romance and painting his finger nails black.

*Additional Massive hypocritical factoid: I have been known to very occasionally puff on a cigarette after an ale or ten and then excoriate myself with self loathing the next day.

8 things to do when you’re not surfing or blogging

2008-02-21T18:00:00.007+11:00

Its been a while between posts due to a variety of factors including laziness, no net access at home, technology influenced ADHD and general life admin. What have I been doing? Well here is a random semi-concise list of diversionary activities that have kept me away from creating content that ranks for obscure terms:

Submitting this blog to RSS directories (don't ask why as I'll bore you with semi geek SEO techno jiggery pokery speak)
Reading: I just devoured "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Moshin Hamid . I really liked it as it painted a salient picture of how a pro western (thinking) Muslim could become disenfranchised with the state of the west and the U.S. after their "war on terror" post 9/11.
Listening to a heap of drum n bass music via myspace and podcasts my favourites are the Hospital records podcast, and the myspace pages for Makoto, The Brookes Brothers, and Logistics
Reading way too many surf mags I think I'm a closet masochist as this is like spiritual salt and lime for the wounds. For what it's worth I rate Stab as it generally makes me piss myself laughing a higher percentage of the time than other mags.
Dreaming of the Mentawais and other spots around the world (France, EnZed, Tamarama,) that all probably have exceptional surf as I type.
Organising broadband for home - as I just think this internet thing might take off and I'm sick of trying to suck ocean sized pieces of data through my straw size unwired connection.
Working heaps and generally enjoying it ;) as it helps pay the mortgage and keeps me off of the streets and is a perfect diversion from self absorbed whinging about the fact that the surf in Australia has been non-stop for the past three months.
Eating well, I went (read got taken to dinner) to Poshbergs with my Beyonce by a very good friend of ours Caria-Canaria and her new man. It was easily the best meal I have had in a long time. If you live in Sydney and feel like throwing a ridiculous large amount of coin down on dinner I recommend it, and the waygu tastes like a steaky choir of angels singing a hym to lazy happy cattle in your mouth. Very good indeed.

Anyway Laters peepz and RSS sniffing botz...

P.S. You like satire and aren't too heavily Christian fundamentalist then check out This (nice retort to the intelligent design quackery being pushed worldwide)

The Sniffer Dogs

2008-02-07T20:45:00.000+11:00

As previously noted in my post about The Sniffer Dogs, they are one of the best dub reggae bands you have (probably) never heard of who create some wicked dub/reggae/ska tunes. Anyway they're playing in Sydney on Saturday night to launch their new CD . If you are an actual human reader (as opposed to a search engine robot sniffing my RSS feed) and you are located anywhere near Sydney and like music and beer I would recommend getting along to check them out. If you want to have a little listen to what they sound like just check the dogs myspace. I particularly dig the tune "Singing on the dance floor" - there is something about a melodica played into a delay that feels like an updated homage to studio one and trojan records. Well its late(ish) and I'm going to chillax with a glass of red whilst grazing the interesting content desert that Australian terrestrial television has become - hello repeats world, thank you writers strike.

Stolen (syndicated) surfing pics

2008-02-07T13:37:00.000+11:00

I love the photos in this gallery from Bill Morris of Tama as its virtually my newish local and when its on like that it is so much fun. I also figured it was time to grab some content from Surfing mag as I have used a bit of content from Surfer lately. Fingers crossed it won't be too long until I'm out in the water enjoying similar conditions.

Occy is a legend

2008-02-05T18:26:00.000+11:00

Occy is a true icon of surfing and this video provides a little snapshot of what's made him great (I love the jellyfish soundbite). Apologies for the loud surfermag ads but I guess someone has to pay for the content ;)

Five Inspirational People

2008-02-03T20:52:00.000+11:00

Sometimes I meet people or read about people who I either find straight out inspirational or who make me realise that for how ever much I sometimes stick my head up my arse and carp on with self indulgent whining that I generally have it pretty easy. This post is about those people who are out there laughing at and smashing huge challenges and generally not letting any bad vibes bring them down while making egocentric whiny fools like me look pretty average.

So this here is a list of people that I find inspirational (beware a feel good wander away from self centred righteousness follows):

Dr Phil Chang: My highly skilled, good natured, generous caring ENT surgeon. This guys a legend; When he's not fixing run of the mill stuff like surfers ear, ruptured ear drums and dodgy schnoz's you'll find him giving kids a life with hearing and generally making peoples lives better. Dr Chang gave my (soon to be niece) a cochlear implant when she was a tiny underweight baby and so now gets to enjoy sound. You can find him here.

Ryley Batt: I read about this guy today, Born with no legs and four fingers (thereabouts) he refused to get into a wheel chair (because it was for disabled people) until it came to sport (his preferred mode of transportation before that was a skate board). He now plays wheel chair rugby (aka murder ball) and from what I read coldy destroys what ever challenges he meets at (probably) full pace. Kid should be bringing wake up calls to whiny teenagers across Australia to make the aware of how easy they have it.

Mick Fanning: wildly talented surfer, cooly kid, white lightening etc. I rate him because he came back from the heaviest injury and simply, refused, to quit. And so he hit rehab and training like a man possessed and in late 2007 he became the world champ. The other thing I like is he seems like a down to earth guy with a no bullshit attitude which is refreshing in the era of mega hyped , affluent, pampered and pandered to surf stars. I can't wait for him to start slaying in 2008.

Jamie Booth: (Disclosure this kid will be my niece when I get married next year - but she is still fricken amazing). Born a massively premature twin, her brother died but she survived, deaf from birth because of the drugs needed to sustain her tiny fragile life and with cerebal palsy the odds were stacked against Jamie. The kids now six and a half, in a wheel chair talking and getting. on. with. it. Yes things are tough for her but she doesn't care, and don't for one minute think she's not smart, oh no the latest 9 bladed gilette razor appears to have an edge like a railway line compared to her brain. She literally radiates good vibes and I know she won't be limited by other peoples expectations of what she can do.

Dr Dave Jenkins: Did the opposite of of most peoples mantras in modern life and left. the. money. He abandoned his well paid job in medicine in Singapore to help the people of the Mentawaii's after not being able to process the juxtaposition of wealthy, healthy westerners frolicking in the ocean whilst 200 metres away people were getting felled at disproportionate rates by malaria, dysentery, malnutrition and all manner of things that shouldn't exist in this age of 24/7 internet interconnectivity and washing machines with LCD screens and GPS triangulation to determine where your missing sock is. So a few years later and they have smashed a lot of the malaria in those steamy islands off of north Sumatra and are moving on to other ways to help out. Most people when they were quaffing their nasi goreng and bintangs on the charter boat after getting ridiculously shacked at HT's would have felt bad for a moment for the skinny sick people on land, maybe they would have passed over a grubby fistful of rupiah for a carving or left some board shorts with the locals. Most people certainly wouldn't have left high paying jobs and security to start a grass roots charity for the betterment of people they didn't know.

Well this shapeshifter album has almost finished, I shall retreat to the couch to ponder further people who fire the inspirational synapses in my brain. Remember kids if life is good if you want it to be - not that I always remember that ;)........

Coffee, Toast and Sunday morning page title hacks

2008-02-03T11:14:00.001+11:00

So I have just spent a good 25 minutes of searching, reading and code cutting and pasting to change the way page titles are thrown in blogger. For the average person page titles are the words at the top of the browser which they occaisonally glance at, for the vaguely SEO centric geek like moi they are like cat nip to search engine spiders signalling the basic semantic value of my inanities. So I'll be now able to lure search engine spiders with a better whiff of words about sheep , some drum and bass sycophantic fan boy action and my ramblings about my never ending salt water addiction.

Anyway I should probably throw the person who created this piece of XML/ HTML wizardry so if you blog and need to Change the way Blogger presents page titles click the link cut and paste to your hearts content.

Super fun hurty hurt show game time

2008-01-21T13:33:00.000+11:00

Now this is what I call a Gameshow, I think the future of TV programming is Japanese...

Just one sniffle in the viral chain

2008-01-17T13:41:00.001+11:00

Although I would classify myself as a New Zealander linving in Australia I love Australia day and everything that it stands for (lazyness, alcohol poisoning, comedowns and random scars after the big day out and carcinogenic berbecued meat). So in the true spirit of Australia day I give you Sam Kekovich a noble man doing his bit to make sure that we eat our full of barbecued plump tasty adolescent sheep on Australia day......

(This video is a shining example of proper viral biznezz....)

Fifteen questions for 2008

2008-01-09T14:14:00.000+11:00

Am I the most erratic blogger on the net?
Can I grow an ear drum tougher than Margaret Thatchers Tits and subsequently make my valiant return to surfing in 2008?
Was the Christmas ham glazed with Rohypnol and the seafood entrees basted with valium or do I suffer from undiagnosed spontaneous festive season narcolepsy?
Is there some irony in watching extreme sports on cable TV whilst doing the polar opposite as a couch based life form that struggles at the physical exertion of reaching for the remote?
Does fuel TV make anyone who surfs, skates, snow boards, wake boards etc look like monosyllabic, single digit IQ, carbon copies of an archetype of radness and dudedom?
Was I an alcoholic or was that just the festive season?
How many good swells did I miss in 2007?
Am I suffering from undiagnosed PMT (Pre Marital Tension)?
Is Rolling Drum & Bass perhaps the finest music in the world for a workout?
If I refuse to rock skinny leg acid wash jeans and baggy slogan t-shirts (ala mid 80's wear) does that mean I am now consigned to the fashion cul-de-sac of middle age apparel (not that I am middle aged) where cool comes from an air conditioner and not my wardrobe?
Is it me or does a lot of electro music plainly suck?
In true contrarian spirit is it me or are LCD sound system fabulous saviours of modern music?
Are the eastern suburbs of sydney the new capital of militant body fascism? And am I happily buying into this obsession?
Is snowboarding not one of the funnest most worthwhile past times to pursue behind surfing and recreational drinking?
Do a lot of us truly fear success?

Wintry Norwegian waves

2007-12-18T18:11:00.000+11:00

There is something about this video that I love. These guys are pretty damm hardcore to be surfing in the arctic circle in what looks like winter. The surf looks fun though..... (apologies about the ad)

Indonesian moments of joy

2007-12-15T15:24:00.000+11:00

Random Mentawais rights

The arena of fun - Mentawais Oct 07

Twilight tropical blaze

One of my new favourite waves - Mentawais Oct 07

These shots just make me want to go surfing.....

Syndicate the average

2007-12-15T15:19:00.000+11:00

In order to keep myself distracted from the fact the surf is still good and I am still not in the surf I thought I would set up an RSS feed on this blog project to fuel the army of scraper splogs and weirdo's who may subscribe. Nothing like installing a bit of basic HTML code on a Saturday to eat up the afternoon.

Well I'm off tinker with further semi tech aspects of amateur bloggery.

Fish Out Of Water

2007-12-09T13:36:00.000+11:00

Its sunny four foot and semi pumping in Sydney and I'm sitting here at the computer in the top floor apartment I share with my beyonce feeling pissed off, emasculated and generally like a slightly fat tubby ageing super hero past his use by date who can no longer fight crime and is reduced to reminiscing about the good old days. I am such a poor fucking loser and can't stand that it seems like everyone I know is surfing fun waves today while I slowly sink into a torpid mire of despair and mediocrity. It seems like years ago that I was on a boat in Indo getting
barreled and inhaling the heady smell of surfing progress and two short months later I'm a whingey over it ladyman venting my highly spoilt egocentric bullshit to the digital void. Fuck its not like I've had anything major go wrong in my life, one little ongoing hiccup in my life and my attitude plunges to the same level of average as Ben Cousins on a moody Tuesday. Well enough of my self centred crapola I'm going to seize the day and watch everyone else compete over fun overhead waves.
And yes I do realise how pathetic I sound

Apathy hip hop and a recurrent ruptured tympanic membrane

2007-12-08T14:41:00.000+11:00

The title of this says it all really, I'm sitting at home feeling average due to a geezer I work with spreading his cold germs through the office as effectively as social media sites propagate whiny emo bands. I'm also feeling average due to my fricken dodgy eardrum getting a hole in it last weekend after 3 weeks out of the water. So I've been fuelling my cyberchondria by reading up online about the "spontaneous healing time for traumatic ruptured tympanic membrane" type that shizzle into google for a spot of light medico style reading on a Saturday arvski.

I tell ya I feel like I've been incarcerated on land for crimes against punctuation and grammar sometimes. For me I sometimes think that life without surfing is like a barbecue with no snags and alcohol free beer. Oh well I guess I can focus on planning a wedding an live vicariously through my surfing friends the coogs', philomena, Macksteen and all the other dudes getting amongst the warm crowded conditions in Sydney.

In other news I got all b-boy last weekend and caught a wicked hip hop show featuring z-trip, swollen members, the jungle brothers and DJ Format. They were all excellent, I loved the jungle bro's little sashay into a mash up with a drum n bass tune, the swollens tore the roof off , and z-trip totally destroyed the joint with rock/hip hop huge mash up bizness. It was a super fun night with the only downer being the 45 minute walk I had up Oxford street trying to get a cab (Sydney taxis are as reliable as Dick Cheney with a shotgun around Christmas).

Anyway that's my average health whinge - I gotta stay positive and focus on all the good things like my honey beyonce, the nice life we have and the mountain of good fortune and luck that easily eclipses any hardship or struggles I may face

Maybe Myspace isn't dead

2007-12-01T13:44:00.000+11:00

With all the social media hype/accolades and fuss being caused by Facecrook* its easy to forget about the original massive social media hit Myspace that is being eclipsed by it's upstart cousin. I personally am not a huge fan of either of these aforementioned social media sites as I think its stupid to give your content to someone else to monetize and make millions off of. However where I do think Myspace kills it is with the promotional aspects for DJ's/Musos/Bands etc. I have been checking a few Myspace pages this week in order to get myself psyched for a gig I'm going to tonight. It's pretty sweet to be able to listen to a few free tracks from an artist to get yourself in the mode before checking them in the flesh. As I covered earlier I love listening to good music (or my heavily biased take on good music) and in that regard Myspace gets my attention every now and again as I check new tunes. I think that will prove to be Myspaces key point of differentiation over Facecrook* and will be one of the main sources of ongoing traffic in the future as they continue to lose market share.

The main artists I have been listening to online this week include:

http://www.myspace.com/djztrip (One of the DJ's I'm seeing tonight -If you like hip hop mash up bizness you'll dig this
http://www.myspace.com/soupdj (Another DJ I'll be seeing tonight - more mash up goodness)
http://www.myspace.com/burialuk (Dubstep icon/underground hero - I love the tune on his page, there is something about that bass line that does it to me)
Shapeshifter (Real ugly URL so they get some specific link love) I've mentioned before my love of kiwi drum and bass. These guys just kill it

*Facecrook: My highly cynical take on Facebook for a number of reasons. One of them being that once you upload content they own it which in my opinion is fucked. I also particularly dislike the photo tagging feature which means that if/when they open the gates to search engines unwanted photos may be appearing in search engines for years to come with the photo subject having very little opportunity to control their image. And no I'm not paranoid I just want to be able to control and monetise my own content/images

This sheep's getting hitched

2007-11-17T08:37:00.000+11:00

For this post I'm pretending that this blog is not devoid of all attention and doesn't actually resemble the digital equivalent of a texan ghost town complete with tumble weed, spooky wind sounds and squeaky cantina doors.

(sound of man furiously trying to chop the tendrils of the tangential Hydra monster that often lurks and looks to attack when he opens his mouth)

Anyway I decided last weekend to make a commitment to my significant other and surprised the shit out of her by being organised enough to propose in a highly romantic restaurant (no irony the place we were dining at Bannisters is exxy but a good venue for that kind of major commitment/decision) whilst away down the south coast for the weekend.

It was a peculiar and vaguely terrifying thing to do but thankfully she said yes and at some point in the not so distant future I will be someones husband.

So I guess the interesting and insightful topic of weddings may added to my already full agenda of items to pontificate about.

The other highlight of the weekend is that I got super fun waves at various spots which felt like some kind of karmic reward for making a good decision and doing the right thing.

Oh and if you are wondering why I don't mention my SO* much in this blog its not just because I am egocentric and erratic. I also think that she should be free to remain anonymous in case I say something stupid/mention something vaguely dodgy from my past to prevent any embarrassment/ career limiting exposure.

*Significant Other

Technorati claim

2007-11-17T08:11:00.000+11:00

In order to increase my readership to two people I am trying to get this blog indexed in Technorati hence this post

Technorati Profile

Nothing like home cooking

2007-11-17T07:53:00.000+11:00

If you like cutesy little animals then don't watch this video as one cutesy little animal ends up as a sandwich

"perfect for an afternoon snack when you are watching a football game"

Sometimes I wonder if there is any niche/deviance/weirdness that isn't catered to online.

Yes I am a leftwing pinko

2007-11-15T18:19:00.000+11:00

And I find this video fucking hilarious. Some of the political satire surrounding this election is awesome. There are some kidz dropping bombs with their mash up skillz big time.

Sorry is not an apology

2007-11-09T13:16:00.000+11:00

So according to John Howard saying "sorry" about something doesn't equate to an apology? What a peculiar little man.......

Wave of Bloggeration part deux

2007-11-04T16:19:00.000+11:00

I have been fortunate enough to work with an awesome guy Kunaal over the last 16 months. Kunaal is exceptionally gifted technically and is a legitimate tech geek (in the best possible sense). Unfortunately for me and my colleagues he is moving on to other employment. I thought it was timely to throw a link his way as he's been blogging for a while (way more frequently than me) and think he's pretty good at it. So here you go here's a link to K'mans blog.

anchor text to be specified after conducting extensive keyword research to identify the highest yielding terms

Ten things I learnt about the Mentawais

2007-11-04T14:30:00.000+11:00

Australia's Surfing Life magazine recently ran a great article by Tim Baker about the Mentawai Islands (in Indonesia). I had the immense good fortune of going on my first trip there in October. I thought in the true spirit of slacker commentary I would steal the concept of Mr Bakers piece and kind of mash it up with my own opinions on this over exposed surfing paradise.

As was pointed out in ASL A Skipper who surf's is critical. Our trip was unfortunate to have a rotund sweaty dude piloting our vessel who didn't surf. His care factor in terms of the waves we were getting was limited. I felt jealous of the guy's on the boats like the Indies,the Barrenjoey or the Huey who had skippers who not only surfed, but ripped and were tuned into the conditions. This probably lead to their guys getting better empty surf.

Booties are important (for the average surfer at most breaks). We've all seen copious footage of pro's getting tubed and destroying HT's and Macaronis sans booties. For the average guy a surf at these joints can result in your hooves being hacked apart by the beautifully evil reef. Alpha and the Gooch discovered this on our first surf at HT's when only wearing one booty each they tore lovely holes in there footsies. This lead to a fun time as I got to scrub Alpha's wounds out with a Tooth brush and hydrogen peroxide whilst he squealed like a girl and the cougar hit him in the face to distract him from the pain.

Take loads of boards. Having a range of boards ensures that you can derive fun from what ever conditions get thrown at you.

Pin tails and rounded pins rule up there. There is something about the feeling of surfing a refined pin tail or rounded pin in good clean powerful surf that cannot be beaten. I took a new 6'3" DHD rounded pin which was unridden and fell in love with it.

Give money to Surf Aid. if you haven't heard of them Surf Aid is an awesome grass roots charity started by a Kiwi doctor Dave Jenkins. We were wandering in Tuapejat while our tubby wolf larsen wannabe refuelled the boat and came across surf aids local office. Dr Dave was in a planning meeting but graciously made time to chat to us about what they were doing. Surf Aid has made a huge difference in the lives of the locals in the Mentawais with their malaria prevention work and are now moving into teaching the locals about other areas like better building practices and sustainability and permaculture. This is what charity is all about and I couldn't think of a better organisation to give $50 to (apart from Medicin Sans Frontiers)

Good waves is to surfing progress what water and sunlight are to plants. The feeling of improving your surfing is what all surfers are chasing (from the top pro's to the masses of flailing backpacker kooks at bondi). I'm not busting 540's or anything but my trip has definitely helped me refine a few style issues and make me a little sharper.

Watching your mates get good waves is almost as good as them watching you get good waves. Seeing the cougar nail a late vertical forehand top turn on a four footer at Macaronis was one of my highlights of the trip. Also seeing Alpha's wave selection, fearless charging at HT's and general approach improve was another highlight.

Getting barreled in front of your friends is what its all about. One wave at ****** (censored) I managed to secure a fun little barrel and then backdoored another little section while the cougar was paddling up the shoulder hooting madly. It was a very good day.

Take a good quality SLR with a paparazzi grade zoom. Most of the indo photos on this blog are courtesy of Brian an American guy form Santa Bruta in California. Brian had the foresight to bring a kick ass camera that captured some awesome shots. All surfers are closet egotists and we all secretly like to see photo's of ourselves on waves.

Its still prone to earthquakes. There was a quake while we were crossing between islands. It felt very strange and was quite disconcerting. In my biased opinion I would avoid land camps like the plague as the chance of another big quake is high. In the land camps that I saw there wasn't a lot of high ground. This means that any tidal wave action would obliterate you.

A reminder for my friend the cougar

2007-11-04T13:48:00.000+11:00

This post is a reminder for my friend the cougar (who answers to other names in real life) to e-mail the list of all his friends so myself and the true Iron Chef can book his Bucks Party activity (a nude drumming workshop on a boat followed by Celtic nose whistling and dolphin hugging if you must know)...........

Boycott British Airways

2007-10-27T12:10:00.000+10:00

British Airways have recently banned the carriage of surfboards and a few other items due to supposed baggage handling issues (excerpt below from their guidelines)

"Due to the large size and handling complexities, some sporting equipment cannot be accommodated through the airport baggage system or within the aircraft hold. Therefore we no longer accept the following equipment at check-in as part of your sporting equipment allowance.

hang gliders
windsurfing boards and sails
surfboards
kayaks or canoes
pole vaults
javelins"

Now I'm not sure of the motivation for this decision but I figure that as long as my total luggage weight is under the allowance I should be allowed to travel with my boards. If BA aren't careful they might find themselves at the middle of a bad PR shitstorm as micro publishers like myself vent and say nasty things about their business, like "I will never ever fly with BA again for business and or leisure and I will actively recommend to everyone I know to not fly with them until they revise their wayward thinking about surf travel".

It will be interesting to see BA's response to bad vibes that are being directed towards them online.

Radio Silence

2007-10-27T11:49:00.000+10:00

Long time no type. I have been preoccupied with other biz over the last little while mainly two weeks in Indonesia on a boat surfing awesome waves and then a few weeks recovering from my post travelling stress disorder*. Holidays are awesome and coming home is awesome but getting back into the frantic frazzled 180bpm city vibe sucks the big one, Especially after chillaxing for 12 days on a boat in the tropics.

Anyway this post is not the full wannabe indo pirates tale more an effort to get back online and into the habit of downloading the words and ideaz in my brain. In other news it appears that this blog has been indexed by the big benevolent G (Google) which means I may be getting traffic from very confused visitors who were looking for hot sheep action but instead got my abstract barely literate ramblings.

Laters

*Post Travelling Stress Disorder is a term I coined (maybe plagiarised) that describes the feeling of getting home and seeing things with a fresh set of eyes. It also explains the malaise and questioning that takes place after a good trip like "why do I have to work every day?", "Where is Kasta my lovely indonesian chef?" and "How do you people put up with surfing such shitty waves?"

Oceanic Addictions

2007-09-15T18:42:00.000+10:00

As I have previously mentioned one of the reasons for starting this blog was to channel some of my creativity and energy that would have normally been eaten up by surfing as mentioned in this post. Anyway my ear is about 90% good and my ENT has allowed me to get back in the beautiful brine at the bottom of my street. I have only caught a few waves in the past few weeks but the joy has been overwhelming. Fuck even just paddling lights up my soul and floods my lobes with serotonin. Today due to a lack of swell me, Alpha, The Cougar and my bro went on a paddling mission around the headland from one metro beach to another. The reason for our faux watermanly efforts is that me Alpha and the Cougar are heading to the Mentawaii islands in two weeks on a surf charter to reacquaint ourselves with the barrel and try to avoid losing too much skin to the reef. Paddling fitness will be a prerequisite for a good time so we figured a few hours at sea would be a good down payment on (hopefully) some filthy steaming indo pits.

I sit here typing while sucking back on a crisp ale relishing the specific slight ache in my shoulders that only time on a surfboard can deliver, while secretly hoping that my ears can cope with the heavy smashings they are going to endure in two weeks. I cannot wait for the near future where both ears are fixed and strong and I can get back into my daily fix of saltwater therapy - oh the joy I will feel.

Oxygen thief with a handy cam

2007-09-14T17:57:00.000+10:00

Sometimes I worry for the future of the planet - especially when there are morons with access to technology like this dude. Crying over the plight of Britney Spears is like claiming that Kate Moss was sniffing vitamins and was set up, or that Mel Gibson has never emptied a liquor cabinet and treated our Semite brothers with disrespect............

Rolling in the RS4

2007-09-04T18:21:00.000+10:00

Sometimes this blog feels like a small child that has been left in the basement to play with fireworks, explosives, power tools and firearms - so much potential but oh so neglected.

I had the absolute sheer joy of piloting a fuck off bad boy vehicle at the weekend. Due to a trusting and benevolent employer who is having a few license issues I was allowed to swipe his black brand spanking new bad boy Audi RS4 convertible to head up the hunter valley for the weekend with my significant other.

For those not in the know this car is the thinking mans muscle car. Where your average bogan gets wet for a shitty commodore with a V8 or a boring vintage Mustang your modern existential contrarian gets a jolt of visceral joy from the RS4. Driving this biatch with the top down, fat bass heavy tunes blaring on a Saturday arvo in the sunshine was pure egomaniacal rev head joy. This car eats up the road like Roseanne Barr with the munchies and sticks to the tarmac like its on rails. The best part of the whole deal is the roar the finely tuned v8 makes when you (carefully) floor it in sports mode out of the lights or onto the motorway. The sound of those 8 cylinders purring makes you feel like Audi have captured and shackled eight of those dragons from lord of the rings and stuffed them under the hood and they are not happy about it. Driving this car has ruined me for life as its unlikely I can get one any time soon being that its worth about a third of the price of my house.

One of my favourite places in the World

2007-08-26T10:59:00.000+10:00

The font of tech genius that is the big G (aka Google) have recently upgraded Google maps to allow embeddable content (similar to You tube). This piece of tech means that I can now break all rules of surfing conduct around identifying surf spots and throw in a map of one of my favourite surf spots in the world. Now before the hardcore watermen form a stoic and super gnarly posse to chase me out of the castle like an angry mob in frankenstein with deep tans, wearing volcom and brandishing sharp pointy Merrick's, dhd's and firewire boards , I should point out this is a "known" spot that is named in surf media in NZ. Anyway I love this beach, I did a lot of learning there and I have had some really fun waves there. Although not epic or even super consistent this beach holds a special place in my heart, because of the serenity, beauty and total New Zealandness (not a word I know) of the place.

View Larger Map

I'm probably going to regret this but anyway its a display of how easy this technology is getting to use if a monkey like me can throw in a map with so much ease - bring on the not quite geek revolution where people with minimal digital skillz flood the web with an avalanche of average noize......

Wave of bloggeration

2007-08-25T14:31:00.000+10:00

The full fury of the blog is being unleashed like Jackie Chan on ice in a kings cross strip club. Ladies and Gentleman I have helped enable one of the poet laureates of our generation get on this digital tip..............I give you pure genius. Watch and learn as this wave of bloggeration captures at least 15 seconds of your time in our attention based economy. This is the way forward as you give some 23 year old kid your content to monetise for billions (yes facebook). The true way forward is to unleash and monetise your own content (eventually)

Snow Windmillz

2007-08-24T18:37:00.000+10:00

Its been a while between posts due to the usual random static that sucks up time and energy like work, life, life admin, no internet access at home yadda yadda yadda ad nauseum, ad infinitum. Anyway I thought with this post I would go completely web 2.0 and include some video of a friend who is a fully sick breaker busting some moves in a rural NSW pub. Anyway check these mad skillz and don't slip a disc trying to emulate this hardcore b-boy....

The best dub reggae band you have never heard of

2007-08-13T13:38:00.000+10:00

If you live in Sydney and have done the city to surf in the past couple of years you may have encountered an unruly posse of people listening to some fresh sounding dub/reggae/ska goodness near the golf course at north bondi. The band are called the Sniffer dogs and in my humble opinion are a fricken awesome live group. They punch out tunes that are kind of like a barbecue at Bob Marleys place with a bunch of Irish, English and Aussie mates who all happen to have weapons grade dub reggae skillz - very sweet indeed. Along with this musical prowess they also have wits sharper than one of those new nine blade razors. Anyway if you like live music with a bit of bass you should check these guys out before they get really famous..........

Random Saturday arvo link love

2007-08-11T15:55:00.000+10:00

Two posts in one day - crikey this blog bug is biting hard. The concept of this post is to give some sites & people I dig some random link love. Whats link love? Well for those non search savvy readers of this blog (not that there are any readers yet) links are one of the main things the overlords of all modern information retrieval (aka search engines - specifically the big G) love. They use links to figure out whats good relevant content (the wheat) and whats not (the chaff) and by linking to stuff you like your little link may help a site rank better and get more traffic. Now at no point am I intending for this ongoing exercise in keyboard based verbosity to become yet another internet marketing blog. Its more that I figured I should explain what my in jokes to myself are about. So heres a list of people that deserve some link love:

Happiness reflexology - I had some reflexology from my friend Lou who runs this business a few weeks ago. I had never had reflexology before and afterwards I was the most relaxed I had been in weeks. Which is saying something, as sometimes I can be a little mAnIc. So if you want a good reflexology sydney clinic check the site and pick up the phone. (yes I know the last sentence does not read perfectly but with the big G its all about the anchor text (the words in the link) .

Six ounce surfboards. Ben at 6oz is my fibreglass dealer. He is the purveyor of dreams to a number of us surf crazed fiends in the eastern suburbs. And don't let the retro, yellow tint chunky, quad finned DVS board thing fool 'ya. Ben has access to some very very high performance Australian shapers. So if you live in Sydney; hell even Australia; and want to access some sweet new surfboards then talk to the dealer man.

Violent Acres - this is perhaps the most piss funny blog I have ever read by an anonymous women (?) in the US of A. Confronting , angry and hilarious this is everything the internet was meant to be. She has a tonne of links so maybe I'll thow her some generic anchor text like piss funny blog.

Dave Naylor - an English search engine optimisation (SEO) sith Jedi (who I stole this whole idea off). His blog's probably too niche if you're not into online marketing but I can't "repurpose" his idea without throwing a link his way. So if you want to read a kick arse seo blog then click the little link.

Well that completes my random link-a-thon - and an important note none of these links are paid for (I'm talking to you Google). And so ends another journey off the on ramp of my brain. Stay tuned for further words and bizness.

Snow Biz

2007-08-11T09:18:00.000+10:00

I have had an ongoing task on my mental to do list that I haven't attended to in the past few weeks due to slackness having non digital fun. That task was to sit down and create some more content for this mental download.

So whats been going on? I hear none of you ask as I have barely let anyone know that this blog exists. I went south last weekend with an mixed posse of geezers, dudes & snow terrorists to throw down some 320 stevie wonders to fakie Stephen Hawkins on the slopes. As the old song goes "there's no biznezz like snow bizzness" especially when the snows this good. An awesome time was had by all although there were a few casualties throughout the weekend:

Crazy Ayyyyyyman the Egyptian sim card dealer had to get a lift off the mountain by the ski patrol after unsuccessfully trying to destroy his knee with some kind of rag doll falling manoeuvre
Van Homo the grand wizard of below the line DM campaigns and pervy books had his snowboard successfully destroyed by a careless monkey operating a base grinding machine at Perisher.
Alpha the man child entrepreneur air specialist busted an "angry bouncer" air - named because when he tried to jump it looked like an angry bouncer threw him off the jump and onto his side.
The Chomp (aka me) I managed to land a number of air 0' window winderz to face - named because the board doesn't spin but my arms do as I try and wind up the windows in the air before gently rotating forward to land on my face. (they are all the rage with the creaky jointed middle aged drum n bass posse's)

Ski-mon my work associate SEM/SEO/SMO/SMP geezer who ski's like a bad guy in a James Bond film -all style and fluid control. Due to having mad skillz on two skis he didn't fall all weekend which marked him as the black sheep of our avalanche of average slope style. Although he did manage to hurt his cerebellum with an evil concoction on the friday night

We all managed to turn a positive into a negative when we transformed our early arrival in Jindabyne on the Friday night into an opportunity to have too many beers. This then degenerated into Jiu-Jitsu as Alpha demonstrated a range of chokes on my inert form to the rest of the posse. Good times indeed. This smart move meant that we all had a horrible taste in our mouth for a solid chunk of our alpine activities on Saturday.

We had much fun and even got fresh snow and blue skies at Perisher on the sunday which is generally unheard of on our snow trips - normally its gale force winds, sleet and ice/slush with patches of grass. Other highlights included checking all of the fresh styles on the hills. Massive style points must go out to:

The asian dudes rocking the matching jacket pants combo who were projecting a kind of P Diddy in aspen, wearing burberry ghetto chic vibe. Oh so hip hop but also a little contrived.

The tall older caucasian gent who was unafraid to wear stretchy tight pants. This meant that on first inspection it appeared to be a very very ugly six foot four lady russian pole vaulter from behind. Never a good look.

Anyway was fun -I must go and pursue a life away from this keyboard.

Music is food for my soul

2007-07-29T15:29:00.000+10:00

Due to some recurring issues with my Ears (from too much water time) I have been unable to pursue my favorite pastime and one of the key loves of my life much in the past 4 months- Surfing . This especially sucks due to the east coast of Australia having had one of the best winters of surf since I've lived here. Want further evidence - check these ridiculously good waves . (bit of link love for swellnet -best mid range surf forecast going).

Rather than slowly go nuts at the thought of how many fricken waves I'm missing I've decided to suck it up and pursue other things. Hence the establishment of this blog, my descent into OCD like workaholism and reading as many books as I can.

One of the things elevating my heart beat at the moment is listening to some of what I think is completely awesome music. Kind of ironic due to having had a skin graft on my left eardrum 3 weeks ago. My musical evolution has been erratic and spanned a number of genres. It started early but key infatuations run something like:

Early electro & breaks (when I was 8 or 9 the whole hip hop b-boy breakdance thing was huge and incredibly seductive. I was a one man rural b-boy of some repute)
Dire Straits when I was 11 or so - I really loved those muscial nerds for a while
Licensed to Ill era Beastie Boys (before buddhism & sobriety calmed them down). I loved this album although I felt slightly naughty due to the dodgy lyrics & concepts.
Guns N Roses when they were cool and drunk and drugged with an appetite for destruction. A path in boganism was calling along with a love affair of black t-shirts.
Metallica - yep GNR lead to loud speed metal. Pretty much where my teenage dodgy hair cuts began.
Nirvana -This was perfect for me when I was a confused, weird, angsty, depressed rural teenager.
Suicidal Tendencies - I loved angry Mike Muir for a while - must have been craving some kind of latino ghetto styles. I even got in trouble at school for wearing a bandanna like Cyco Myko. This was maybe my nadir of angry.
Dead Kennedys - I always had a scratchy mix tape somewhere with California Uber Alles during my rural / semi urban skate punk period (13-16)
Fugazi - The sobre thinking mans angry Music - Waiting room is one of the best songs ever written. These guys are nuclear reactor meltdown hot live as well (maybe I should have warn earplugs)
Boss Hogg - Damm she was a hot cartoon
Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet dust is the start of my circular return to the beats
Massive Attack - Blue Lines and protection were just so dammed cool and Tricky is the scariest, stoned gangster from noll west I've never met
Sonic Youth - Noisy NY art geniuses all of them and I always thought Kim Gordon was attractive. The Goo Album was an awesome soundtrack to 3 months surfing in south Portugal a few years ago (well 10 actually).
Roni Size - new forms - the drum and bass oddysey begins
RJD2 - deadringer - hip hop brilliance
Salmonella Dub - inside the dub plates. These Guys , Shapeshifter and the All Blacks make me proud to be a kiwi
Gerling - seeing them a few years ago got me high on life

Anyway thats a very breif snapshot of the weird and wending road that has shaped my musical tastes. The Five tunes that are doing it for me at the moment include:

Roots Manuva feat Rodney P - Swords in the Dirt. 3 minutes plus of booming mashed up hip hop and drum n bass. (Now listen again 8 on Ninja Tune by DJ Food & DK)
Tayo meets Acid Rockers - dread cowboy. Dub + Breaks + Bass = goodness
LCD sound system -North American Scum. Dirty NY seppos with humour and electro biz -is good
DJ Shadow - Right Thing (massive mega mix by Z-trip) oh how I love this
Shapeshifter - One - Drum N bass + soul + Aotearoa love. Pure Beauty

Anyway I've taken the last train to ramble town with this sonic summary. I would have linked to some to these bands but I'm a lazy bastard.

Conceptual Randomisation

2007-07-29T14:47:00.000+10:00

So this is the first post as I embrace the interweb and use it as a means to publish the random concepts floating through my brain. I have no pretence that I have genius skills when It comes to writing , Its more that i have finally decided to scratch the nagging itch in my brain telling me to write dammit as maybe there may be some gems of insight amidst the cloud of average.

Anyway why the name Subtle Yet Sheep? I had a number of other titles but due to being about 9 million years to late to get my act together and set something up a number of my titles had been used by all the quicker cooler kids who are on point with their digital skillz. Titles I was toying with included:

Tangential Meanderings (tangentials been done - look mum no new ideas on the net)
The Random Cowboy/Off the Randometer (I sometimes possess weapons grade randomisation abilities - unfortunately the random concept has been done even more to death)
Edge World (Way too late as bleeding edge tech voices own this concept)

Then I pulled the old take 1 concept and add it too a concept so diametrically opposed or unrelated that you get some weirdness:

Puppy Hammer (never the main option and could get flamed to hell by humourless animal rights terrorists)
Creepsy Thoughts (kind of a disney movie about a stalker connotation - which I'm not)
Tickle Punch (a bit too much of an abusive B&D relationship vibe)

Subtle yet sheep worked because I couldn't find it in Technorati (yegads a smidgen of originality in a sea of sameness). I also like the sheep thing as I'm from a little country called Aotearoa that has more sheep than people. I also like that you could spin it into the whole "however much I embrace mass individualism and contrary consumption I'm still a sheep".

Anywho the tangential, meandering, randomised, rambling has begun. If you dig come back and I may even write some more.