New band, new band, YAY!

Many thanks to Dave L. for recommending this new band to me, cause zomg, they’re amazing!

Hailing from Sydney, the Crooked Fiddle Band

www.myspace.com/thecrookedfiddleband

Enjoy!

Online dating – the way of the future? Or just really, really sad?

So I’ve been single again now for almost a year, and every now and then, I think to myself, “yeah, it’d be nice to have a man in my life who’s not a work colleague”.

But I’ve only been on one date during that time, and that was… shall we say one date was enough? Sweet guy, I s’pose, but that kind of puppydog intensity just makes me nervous. Not to mention that we had absolutely nothing in common. I met that boy in a pub, and I was drunk enough to give out my number.

But I’m not one to go out much, and when I do, I’m much more interested in having a good time with my girlfriends (who are an intensely interesting and amusing bunch) than I am in picking up. And no, I’m not gay. Except if it was Claudia Black. Or perhaps Katee Sackhoff (aka Starbuck) from Battlestar Galactica.

So how do you meet boys these days, if you don’t go out? The answer that so many people are turning to these days is found not in the personals section of the newspaper, but on thousands of dating sites, some free, some claiming to be free, and some charging anywhere from “a decent amount” to “a kings ransom”.

Now, I’ve had experience with online dating before. I’ve had dates from RSVP.com in Melbourne, met some lovely guys, but not had the kind of success that I’ve heard other people having (ie buying houses together, getting married – if you class that as “success”). I’m signed on to a few now, but most of the ones which are any good, cost money. In fact I’ve only seen one free one which had decent design, and of course, it’s in the US. But here’s the thing. If an online dating site’s free, then the person it will attract will be the person who’s not really interested in really finding a partner – they usually just sign up for the blague, and then end up stringing you along with endless excuses, acting interested EVEN when I give up sending them emails, but then not following through with the promise of meeting up for drinks (you know who you are, boys). What’s that all about?

Stupid boys.

Aaaaanyway. Am going out tonight with the girls (and Ubiquitous Jessie is coming up from London for some Edinburgh Fun) and I have decided that it being St Paddy’s Day weekend, I’m going to at least be receptive to the idea of men on the radar.

One last thing that struck me as odd – I just thought I’d mention something interesting about the graphics on this US site, which makes me wonder about racial divides in America (or perceived racial divides). There are four pictures of couples up the top – a caucasian couple, an arab/indian couple, an asian couple, and a black couple. No racial mixing. Just blatant photographic apartheid. There’s a LOT of mixed race couples here in the UK, and an increasing number in Australia. US readers, help me out – is there an unspoken disapproval of mixed race couples in the US, or is this site just creating boxes where none exist?

This is the story of an English lady who wanted to buy a house in a remote Swiss village. When she returned to England she realised that she didn’t see the toilet in her new house. She wrote to the Swiss estate agent asking where the WC was. The estate agent’s English was very poor – he had no idea what she meant and assumed that WC stood for ‘Wayside Chapel’ or small church. This is the reply received by the English lady:

My dear Madam,
I take great pleasure in informing you that the WC is situated nine miles from the house in the centre of a beautiful grove of pine trees surrounded by lovely grounds. It is capable of holding 250 people and it is open on Thursdays and Sundays only. As there are a great number of people expected during the summer months, it is an unfortunate situation, especially if you are used to going regularly.

It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the WC and it was there that she met her husband. I can remember the rush there was for seats. There were ten people to every seat usually occupied by one!

You will be glad to hear that a good number of people bring their lunch and make a day of it. I would especially recommend your ladyship to go on Thursdays when there is an organ accompaniment. The acoustics are excellent, even the most delicate sounds can be heard everywhere.

The newest addition is a bell donated by a wealthy resident of the district. It rings every time a person enters. We will be holding a fete soon so that we can buy more comfortable seats. It is difficult to sit on the present ones for more than an hour at a time. My wife is rather delicate and she cannot attend regularly. It is almost a year since she last went and naturally it pains her very much not to be able to go more often. I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you when you arrive. Hoping to be of some service to you.

Why do they kill all the good ones?

I got sent this link to a wee online version of Deal Or No Deal, a gameshow which I’ve honestly never seen before, but through various bits of pop culture I know it has something to do with brief cases and long drawn out telephone calls.

It made me all nostalgic for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a masterpiece of television which went the way of Firefly – put on “hiatus” (ie more than likely cancelled). All I know of the aformentioned gameshow, I know from Studio 60 – cause they had the host of the show on S60’s show within a show (is that too complicated?), and did a spoof for Deal or No Deal.

I loved Studio 60. I truly loved everything about it. I loved the characters. I loved the snappy dialogue, written to perfection by Aaron Sorkin of West Wing fame. The show featured some of those things which made the West Wing so great.

There was that feeling that they were dealing with something important – and yes, I do feel that those who make television have a moral responsibility which should be taken seriously. Anyone who mewls about the characters taking this TV show too seriously obviously can’t grasp the fact that entertainment television is viewed by far more people than educational television. Therefore, don’t those in entertainment have a certain responsibility to make something which might make society a better place through their influence?

Also making a reappearence was Sorkin’s trademark walking-and-talking dialogue – something that doesn’t happen enough in shows of lesser ilk, but happens more often in shows which are well drawn, like Firefly.

And the whole Matt-Danny thing? Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry (above) were absolute gold together as the best-friends who become director and writer of the show within the show. Sorkin really captured the energy between the two characters, then Whitford & Perry stitched it all together. Gold. *sigh*

So while you’re waiting with anticipation for the next brilliant TV show to be cancelled (how long before Heroes gets it? Oh no, wait – It’s comic-book style, earlier in the evening and is considerably less complicated than S60) wander on over here and be diverted for at LEAST 2 minutes…

OMG, you gotta see this! Well worth watching several times, just for the sheer idiocy of it…

I’ve been clean for one day now…

I did it, at least for one night. I got home, and was vaguely surprised to find my computer switched off. I’d switched it off that morning, and had forgotten about it. Force of habit had me almost lean down, switch it on, and plonk myself in my computer chair.

But then I stopped.

One has to stop, eventually.

I stopped and asked myself, “will the world end if you don’t switch on the computer?”

I’m not so far gone that I don’t know the answer.

So. I tidied the kitchen. I watered all my plants. I cleaned every single leaf on my 2 foot ficus. Then I put washing on. Unpacked the dishwasher. Fed the fish, cleaned their tank. Tidied up my room. Filed away bills and receipts. Admired my Lobelia seedlings, which have JUST sprouted from seeds. Gonna be a good crop this year.

Then I was in bed by 9.30, and read my book. Had a call from Ubiquitous Jessie in London (who began to clean the leaves on HER plant when she heard what I’d done with my evening). Got all nostalgic from the olden days, cause Swee Leng had sent me an email to say that she saw an old friend from Jess & my school days on telly. He’s high up on staff of a prominent Aussie politician (not naming any names here, but we’re darn proud of him!) and was in the background as that politician was jabbering to the cameras. Or something.

But I digress. My point is that I managed a whole evening without my computer. I did it. I kinda liked it. I think I’ll do it some more.

HOWEVER… There is something which has come to my attention which may require me to burn more time infront of the computer:

The Battlestar Galactica Video Challenge

I’m a bit excited.

The Scifi Channel and the Battlestar Galactica production team have issued a challenge.

They’ve told us to create a Battlestar Galactica short film. They’ve given us sound effects. Clips to use. Opening title music (oooh yeah!). God, I can’t wait to get this baby up and running on my computer. I’m now taking submissions (which will of course be credited where credit’s due) for scripts/ideas/scenarios for a short Battlestar Galactica film.

*wrigglefit*

I’m SO up for this!! I’m already planning to cast the Edinburgh Browncoats, thinking about where I can get costumes, dog tags, those cool singlet tops they wear…

OK, so just so you know, the picture on the right (Jamie Bamber as Apollo) is really there to show off the singlet tops worn by the crew of the Battlestar Galactica. I’ll say this once and once only: I am NOT peddling arm-porn.

OK, so maybe I’m peddling just a bit, but what would a blog be without random acts of arm-porn here and there? Mmmmmmm… Bamber arm-porn…

Really, it’s enough to make a girl fall off the wagon and start surfing teh internetz for more. How dare David Eick cast such a piece of arm porn on his show?

*sigh*

Hi, my name’s Charlotte, and…

I’m a computer junkie.

I came to a stark realisation last night, as I was tossing and turning, trying to get to sleep at 2.30am. It came as I threw back the covers and got up, flounced over to my computer, and plonked myself down to surf the net while I waited for sleep to come.

It was at that moment that it finally hit me. What was I doing? How did I get to this point? Yes, I am a proud computer geek, but at that moment I actually wondered to myself, is that such a good thing? When did a tool become such a crutch? Where did my life start to revolve around this little box of metal and silicon, whirring and buzzing, beeping and blinking at me, beckoning to come and stare into it’s little GUI? (Graphical User Interface, for the non tech-heads).

I’m obsessively checking my emails, the forum for new messages, doing the same searches over and over again in the hopes that there will be some news on that topic (my current favorite search is on Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip – will it come back after hiatus? Won’t it? Oh the agony of losing yet another favorite show).

And when I’m not doing the OCD email checking, forum surfing, google searching, I’m inhaling vast chunks of pop culture in the form TV Episodes – Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate (which is so crap now, I only watch it out of 10 years of habit), Desperate Housewives, 24, Lost, House, the list goes on. I even have a spreadsheet to help me keep track of what I’ve watched, what episodes are on what day. It’s so normal for me now, I’ve lost sight of the fact that it’s not really a normal thing to do.

When did I get like this? I don’t want to be like this, I want to enjoy this city, I want to get things done, I want my room to be tidy, to eat more healthily (which involves planning and actually (*gasp*) COOKING), I want to go more regularly to the gym, I want to reset my body clock so that I can go to bed at 11pm and not toss and turn until 2.30 in the morning. I want to go out, I want to go walking, I want so much more than my computer is allowing me to do!

Has anyone else been here, and managed to save themselves? If so, how is it done? How do you kick a habit which has been building up in your system for a lifetime?

Is it merely time to switch off? But what if someone wants to talk to me on the other side of the world? What if my parents in Kenya have a good net connection for once and want to chat? What if … ?

No. It’s time to switch off.

Now, someone please tell me how to pull the plug on a beloved friend? I think I’ll need grief counselling…