Month: September 2012

  • Mind Field

    Over the last few weeks I have come to a decision…I really don’t like stress -_-

    A number of factors have been messing with my usually un-focused and dreamy mind and the result has been stress. Which came with lack of sleep, irritability, frustration, loss of appetite, upset stomach and even feelings of depression.

    I am fortunate enough to have been spared a life of stress for almost all of it thus far (and I hope that continues) but i’ve also been presented with many useful tools to manage stress such as meditation and all sorts of new age self help and personal development systems and techniques. But despite these many tools and options in my armoury…I still have been unable to free my mind from its obsessions enough to give myself peace.

    Because the fact is once we are in the state of stress, pain or whatever it is, the last thing we want is to do something other than just suffer. And this is the big problem we so often overlook, when we are in pain (emotional or physical) there is a part of us, that wants it. It’s not weird or somekind of fetish it’s just the way our minds function, we like to have consistency and if the character we are playing ‘should’ be feeling one thing, to go and seek out the exact opposite is like agreeing that our perception is not real, which scares us so we don’t act.

    So if you are suffering something (particularly stress or something mental, but physical too) then you must gain some perspective and identify all the emotions both for and against how you feel, then if you can agree that you truly want to free yourself, Take Action. Do something that you know will help and choose to do it rather than just running on default…then you’ll probably have to go through the whole process again, and again.

    Our minds are like freight trains they have immense power and only the one little guy to control them :P but despite the chaos caused by a freight train runaway, if you get that guy back in control it all stops at the push of a button.

    Okay now some pictures of bunnies! :D

    Our Garden has become home to this little fellow :)

    Doing the rounds looking for his daily veg.

    This is the most perfect image of a mushroom i’ve ever taken! :) totally un-edited just how it came out.

    A good reason not to be stressed ;)

    A walk in the woods. It’s always so much more fun to walk with someone rather than alone even if you are walking in silence.

    A neighbours cat, who blinked every time i tried to photograph her >.< but finally i got this one lol

    Storm Clouds always clear.


    Hope all is well Xanga and Xangans :)

    I’ll be back to being free and easy eventually hehe

     

  • Busy Bee

    Things are a bit wild at the moment here :S

    Several jobs popping up, some rather major disasters and lots of distractions.

    But overall it means I’ve just not been able to get onto Good old Xanga, it is not forgotten though and I shall be back like all the best Cyborgs ;)

    For now though incase I don’t see you…Good Morning, Good Evening and Goodnight! ;D

  • The Girl and the Glass Balloon

    The other night I was lying in bed listening to some music (which was rec’d to me by my Xanga DJ @yearofthebeautiful ;) and while the following track (one of my favourites) was on, an image came into my mind which I have since tried to capture with pencil paper and digital trickery.

    First the song: Marina and the Diamonds – Hermit The Frog

    And now…

    It’s pretty close to the image I had in my mind but slightly different on the experssion. After colouring this one I then used Photoshop to add some other filters some of which looked pretty cool so i’ll add those too.

    Dark Strokes, make it look a bit like silk printing.

    This rather creepy effect is done by Fresco and makes it look much more witch like or unsurprisingly like it’s a fresco :P

    And finally the Photocopy filter, which makes it go all ink washy. This one is very different and quite lovely I think, makes her more ghost or perhaps tree like.

    Anyway thats one vaugely productive thing I managed on an otherwise annoying and ineffective day :/

  • Chemical Fashion

    Recently I had to bleach my trousers :-O

    Errm no it wasn’t because of a desperate need to clean them if thats what you were thinking. Infact this was a long put off task to try and recover a pair that i’d accidentally spilt bleach on while helping out at the community centre. They were black trousers…but the undiluted bleach had completely melted through the colour leaving several bright orange splotches…near the crotch that didn’t really look that great from a distance :S

    So I came up with a plan to go at these trousers with more bleach and enhance this effect into some sort of sci-fi chem camo, and here are the results:

    I think they look quite good actually :)

    Also on this fashion post another epic nerd cufflink :D

    And if you were looking for proper fashion then go here

  • A Curry Cooking Celebration

    I am no cook :/

    Mostly if I need to eat and there is noone else who enjoys it more to make something for me I’ll end up with either Toast, Beans on toast…or a fried egg sandwich. If I do try to cook something more elaborate I tend to get annoyed quite quickly and it’s always more random than planned whatever comes out of it.

    But due to various reasons I recently had the oppertunity and need to cook something and so decided to try my hand at a curry (mainly because they are pretty easy and usually nice)

    Now normally I would not mention such a mundane event as cooking, but quite a few people I know online and in life have told me off for my total lack of culinery ability -_- so as flimsy proof of my heeding of their complaints I have made this post. Which I also dedicate to my very good friend Marlar @I_Love_Burma who not only told me off for not being able to cook, but then insisted I make a video of the next time I did :S (she’s such a meany >.<)

    Hehe but also it’s nicely timed into a full year since I met her so this is a combo cooking and anniversary post (thats got to at least save me from being told off for a few months ;)

     

    So without further ado my curry!

    First a video of me cooking as requested…it’s not great and doesen’t really tell you anything other than something about my music taste…but it’s hard enough cooking let alone trying to video it! :P

    And now some pictures of the actual meal. It was supposed to be a potato and aubergine curry…but we didn’t have any aubergine and I don’t really like them anyway, so I just stuffed a few more potatos and carrots in there.

    The Curry paste, with all the usuals in there Cumin, Chillie Turmeric etc…that bit I actually really liked making i’d love to mess about with different flavours sometime.

    Green Chillie, Onions, Mustardseeds and cumin seeds i think.

    The finished thing simmering down, at this point it had loads of stuff in it, black onion seeds, tomato, veggie stock, potatos and carrots…i’d basically left the recipe and started just vaugely doing what was ‘right’ feeling :P   I also didn’t have a lid for that pan so it dried out a bit too quick…but it also turned out very sharp heat wise, so at my dad’s suggestion we put in some Coconut milk (thank god we had some) and i added some extra water too. After one whole mini tin of Coconut it was much less spikey on the throat and had a wonderful coconut flavour. Plus it had given the veggies time to soften…I also found a massive pizza tray to cover the pan finally so it got a bit more simmering without drying out.

    And the finished article :D it was surprisngly lovely and my dad was a real fan…almost finishing it all off that night :P

    It was still a bit on the hot end but not eye watering blow your socks off hot, just more like you know you were eating curry hot and having hummus covered bread as an aside really helped ;)

    Overall it was a grand success and more fun to make than most meals i’ve tried, perhaps i’ll give another go at a curry and make something up this time. Infact I think thats my main issue with cooking, I don’t really like just following a recipe. I’d much prefer to come up with something at the time, maybe if I do it that way it’ll be less frustrating.

    So since i’m on the topic; do you cook? Do you like to cook? and what would you suggest I try cooking, if I ever do again ;)

  • Smug Mode

    Who’s got two thumbs and just recieved a $245 cheque from Clickbank?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    This Guy! ;)

    Now I need to do it again and every month and the last two years of learning marketing will be worth it :)

  • You Wouldn’t Like me…

    When I’m Angry.

    God damn scammers!

    We get called really quite regularly by a scam company that pretends to be Microsoft and then tries to get you to install remote control or key logger programs onto your system as they try to ‘disinfect your system’ being a IT and general tech guy I can see this coming a mile off and either hang up on them or lead them on for a bit then tell them off and hang up.

    But more and more it’s been PISSING me off >.< because these people are using their time on this! they are spending effort, intellegence and ability on the sole intention of scamming people and ripping them off. And worst of all the people who are likely to fall for it are probably older generation or people who are not clear on how computers function, so in effect these people are preying on the elderly and those without knowledge.

    It’s cruel and quite frankly evil. Everyone has potential and ability far beyond what they often think and we all can be of value if we choose to. These people are choosing to predate on others and spread fear, it’s just wrong dammit.

    Of course in all things there is balance and perhaps their purpose is just currently not visible to me, and it has to be said by letting myself get angry I am not spreading any joy. If I was wise i’d find a way to love them and what they do…but for now I just wanna go Hulk on their asses and somehow virus the hell out of them or do something to protect those that are vulnrable.

    The most recent one (just a few mins ago) went through this whole thing to ‘convince’ me that my system was infected. It was total BS be he was a nice sounding guy and i’m sure he could put his mind and intellegence towards something productive and creative, not theft -_-

    I can’t stop him so I shall change myself and change what I can to balance things out. Be good today Xangans, find something creative, posetive or loving to do…or do all three ;) support someone or something, share knowledge and be kind. It only takes a few good deeds to erase many bad ones.

     

    Ahh thats better, things have all gone hippy again :D

  • T-shirt Time

    I’ve been playing about with designing T-shirts on Zazzle recently, so I thought I’d get some opinions on what i’ve come up with so far :)


    See other gifts available on Zazzle.

    And because it might be a bit tricky to see them in that flash panel thing here are a few of the designs original images.

     

     

     hut p & ove n.

    These are mostly either inspired from TV or other bits of media. But some are just Ideas either me or mostly my dad have had and thought would be funny :)