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Spotlight Posts

Showing Your Undies and Tight Jeans: Awesome or Disgusting?

The Phenomenon of Farmville and Farmtown

Combat Depression

Eat More Kangaroo (Recipes incl.)

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These glorious insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words. Most of the time when someone insults us we return the comment with a F you. Back in the day people were much more inventive and showed wit and a sense of humor. I thank my ma for sending me these....

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A friend of mine, Matt, is a massive fish (and whale) expert and activist. He runs a large outdoor and indoor aquarium place and is university educated in all things marine. Not only does he sell his fish but he loves them. He believes in their well being and how we should all protect our oceans and...

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Thanks to Pete for sending me this. It was so interesting and great to know that you all may find it as interesting as I did. Do you know why numbers look like they do? Someone, at some point in time, had to create their shapes and meaning. Our numbers are originall based on Arabic numbers...

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I am sure pretty much every Australian is aware of the craziness known as today September 23rd 2009. Somewhere in bloody China a butterlfy flapped it's wings and then all hell breaks loose in Australia. Melbourne gets not one but two earthquakes, the South West of NSW and Broken HIll scores the bigg...

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Thanks to Dan for bringing this to my attention. All geeks, Star Wars fans and theatre lovers!! Charles Ross's One Man Star Wars opens at the Enmore Theatre on Wed 11th November. One Actor 40 characters 3 epic films! In this fast paced show Charles Ross brings to life all the characters...

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I recently bought my new phone, a Nokia 5800 Express Music, which I had a small humorous whinge about HERE. But one of the truly amazing things about Nokia's answer to the IPhone was that I received with it 365days of unlimited music downloads to pack onto the phone or my PC. I have now star...

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OK - I have to be honest - I have been suffering withdrawals from Farmville and Farmtown on Facebook while staying at mums and while they have a net connection - it's dial up with a small graphics card and the computer basically shits itself every time I log on. But like I said in my Bermagui post t...

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I am currently staying at my parents place on the South Coast of NSW, Australia outside a beautfiul town in a more beautiful area known as a Bermagui. My parents live 10 minutes from Bermagui in a smaller area known as Fairhaven on the shores of the majestic Wallaga Lake. On one side of my pa...

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After working 48hrs a week 6 days a week and writing on my 7th non stop since Easter when I had 5 days off it is time to take some annual leave. I took just under 3 weeks leave that commenced on Thursday. I am stoked to be heading to the snow tomorrow morning for a week of spring skiing with a few f...

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Fashion is making some bold moves of late and everyone would have seen kids everywhere basically showing their ass hanging out of a pair of baggy or skinny jeans. It is the new craze where teens wear their jeans belted under the bum and show off their boxers or underpants - in summer in my suburb of...

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OK - I probably shouldn't laugh at this - but it is bloody hysterical. A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and being the sick bastard I am I had to have some voyeurism turtle style :) This is originally from a TV show called "Attack of the Show". Thanks Marty! Notice how bored the ...

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With Helen's amazing garden post I felt inspired to try and walk outside today after spending 5hrs writing Orble articles. It was then that I realised Sydney did get most of its predicted hot weather today so I walked around my little garden and found that one of my orchids had burst into bloom. ...

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For those of us that are on Facebook you will no doubt have come across someone's update saying they have done something on either Farmville or Farmtown. Facebook offers many inhouse quizzes and games ranging from How Big is Your Penis? to What 80's song represents you? to Which Harry Potter charact...

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I recently purchased a Nokia 5880 mobile phone portable music machine portable PC and thought it was the most beautiful phone I had ever held - it looked so sexy in it's plastic wrapper and the screen was massive, although not as large as the IPhone. Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelat...

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How low can I go - I am now posting fart jokes :) I was in the pub yesterday when I suddenly realized I desperately needed to fart. The music was really, really loud, so I timed my farts with the beat. After a couple of songs, I started to feel better. I finished my mug of beer and notic...

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PC or Mac?	HERO - a superb gay superhero novel	Australians dealing with Silly Tourists	Raids Save over 50 Chocolate Child Slaves
Glorious Insults	Whale Action - Martin Place - 19th October	Why do our written numbers look like they do?	Twisted Shoes
A Butterfly Flapped its Wings and Sydney Gets Covered in Red Dust	Calling All Geeks - One Man Star Wars Opening in Sydney	What are your MUST HAVE Albums?	This ain't Farmville/ town no more Dorothy
Bermagui, a Sth Coast Wonderland	Off to the Snow	Showing Your Undies and Tight Jeans: Awesome or Disgusting?	Turtle Porn
My Orchids Have Started to Bloom	The Phenomenon of Farmville and Farmtown	Touch Screen Phones have Proved Agent Smith from the Matrix Correct	Fart Joke

Total Randomness

PC or Mac?

November 7th 2009 20:25

I asked this simple question on Facebook yesterday and war has erupted between factions. If you were raised with Mac you are a dedicated Mac person and same if raised with PC. Over 20 comments in 3 hours and some people seem willing to die for the cause. Whichever computer I get it must be able to handle high end gaming. Mainly World of Warcraft but I want to be able to run Crisis. I also write a lot - especially on Orble and I also use a lot of photo editing - mainly Photoshop. Being a movie buff I also need to be able to watch trailers and films for reviewing and I do like to have multi programs running and the option of two monitors.

The question I am asking here is what do you use and if you have used both what do you prefer? The arguments on Facebook have been quite entertaining and educational. Here are my two favourite opposing comments:

Argument for PC care of IT hottie Dan:
Do you want to feel 'unique', suffer with large incompatability issues, pay extra money for all software//hardware upgrades and look trendy at coffee stores?
Then Mac is for you.

Do you just want a computer that'll do what you tell it to, don't care what it looks like and not have to take it to a pretentious Apple store where a pair of headphones costs half your paycheck?
Get a PC...

Argument for Mac - care of Troy - Orble's old poster boy
Just get a MAC!! The software is no more expensive, you'll never have to worry about it freezing, it won't need to go in for rebuild every 12 months and best of all you won't be stuck using a peace of shot opperating system - like Vista... And fuck all the "windows 7" bullshit, the marketing spin is the same old rhetoric, and if Microsofts past is anything to go by "7" will be just as useless as every other systems they've released since, well, ever!!

The Mac I have been looking at is the new 27" iMac - it is probably the sexiest piece of equipment I have ever seen. This is one of the redeeming features of the Mac's - they are all so aesthetically pleasing and without the actual PC box as a seperate attachment are better on space. This Mac costs $2800- AU and these are its specs:

2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
8x double-layer SuperDrive
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard (International English) and User Guide (English)

The PC I am kind of looking at is below. This system on Ebay comes in at under $2000-. I have been searching on the net and mainly on EBay for a good deal - this appears to be the best deal. If I am spending this money I really want a bigger monitor and this one comes with a 24" monitor. Not quite Mac size but definately a huge difference from my 19".
Quick Specification :
CPU : Intel Core i7 860 QuadCore Processor (2.8Ghz, 8MB Cache, Socket 1156)
Case : ThermalTake V9 Game Casewith Huntkey Green Star 550W 14CM Fan
Motherboards : Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 MB
DDR2 memory : 4Gb DDR3 RAM
Hard Drive : 1TB SATA Hard Drive
Video card : Nvidia GTX 275 896M Video Card
Optical Driver : 22x Dual Layer DVD Super All Write Drive
Sound Card : Intel High Definition Audio (onboard)
Network Card : Ethernet network adapter (onboard)
Input Device : Rock Multimedia Keyboard and Optical Mouse Combo in USB
Monitor : BenQ G2420HD 24" FULL HD HDMI LCD Monitor Black

Let your inner geek out and help me peeps.

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HERO - a superb gay superhero novel

November 1st 2009 09:14

Massive thanks go to Paul for word of mouthing me this book to read. Apologies to the fine author, Perry Moore, as I borrowed the book as opposed to buying my own.

I had actually seen the book in Bookshop Darlinghurst, Sydney Australia, and picked it up to read the blurb and thought it was a great idea for a book and that the cover art was very sexy. Not having money at the time I added it to my list and then Paul turns up with a copy. Woot.

Thom Creed is used to being on his own. Even as a high school basketball star, he has to keep his distance because of his father. Hal Creed had once been one of the greatest and most beloved superheroes of The League, until the Wilson Towers incident. After that Thom's mother disappeared and his proud father became an outcast.

The last thing in the world Thom would ever want is to disappoint his father. So Thom keeps two secrets from him: First is that he's gay. The second is that he has the power to heal people. Initially, Thom had trouble controlling his powers. But with trail and error he improves, until he gets so good that he catches the attention of the League and is asked to join. Even though he knows it would kill his dad, Thom can't resist. When he joins the League, he meets a motley crew of other heroes, including tough-talking Scarlett, who has the power of fire from growing up near a nuclear power plant; Typhoid Larry, who makes everyone sick by touching them, but is actually a really sweet guy; and wise Ruth, who has the power to see the future. Together these unlikely heroes become friends and begin to uncover a plot to kill the superheroes. Along the way, Thom falls in love, and discovers the difficult truth about his parents' past.

This is moving, funny, and wonderfully original novel shows that things are not always what they seem, and love can be found in the unlikeliest of places.

Credit for this artowrk goes to Kimball Gray - he has a website at www.deviantart.com

I should clarify that this is much more than a "gay superhero" book. It is a look into the battle all homosexuals face when coming out, keeping their secret identity before they are comfortable to show their real self to the world. It also deals with homophobia, how the parental units deal with finding out their only child is gay and how love can blossom from unexpected sources. It also highlights the importance of friendships and that total assholes may be that way for a reason and that healing this hurt can have wonderful self fulfilling effects.

Gays cop a hiding in the comic world and Moore says he wrote the book after being upset by a Marvel Comic in 2005. In X-Men: Age of Apocalypse #2, the gay superhero Northstar was killed by Wolverine. Moore believed that having one of Marvel’s biggest superheroes murder its most prominent gay character sent the wrong message to readers. Moore subsequently created a list of GLBTQ superheroes who have met with torture, rape, disembowelment, decapitation, had their genitalia disfigured or removed, or retconned as heterosexual. His growing awareness of the poor treatment of GLBTQ superhero characters led him to write Hero to present a more positive image.

Moore told The New York Times that a series of book sequels featuring Thom Creed are planned, and a motion picture adaptation is in the early stages. The first adaptation will be for the television, Moore announced "It looks like we’re going to do a TV series with Showtime. There were two networks that we pitched, and we got two offers." The coming TV show and future movie are being made with the assistance of world comic and superhero genius Stan Lee and I cannot wait to see them. I just hope they get mainstream treatment.

The book has copped a bit of critical attack for cliche ridden superhero and gay themes but I loved every bit of it with many characters that are not two dimensional and are all lovable. It borrows ideas from Watchmen and many other heros with the ultimate hero of the book, Justice, being a majority copy of Superman but this is his way of not breaking copyright and using every type of hero possible in this tale. Thom is so lovable you want to hug him and tell him everything will be alright during his darkest moments and his relationship with his father is handled brilliantly. I hope this book is not written off by the general public as a "gay" book as I think it is universal and can be enjoyed by all. It took me 6hrs of reading where I got burnt to a crisp without realising it as I could not put the book down while sitting next to the pool and enjoying the day.

It should also be noted that besides this being Moore's first novel he is in fact also the executive producer of the Narnia movies. Yay Moore, now bring on Caspian!!!

This book can be purchased online from all good bookstores, it will also be available in all gay friendly bookstores. I hope you get to enjoy it as much as I did.

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Australians dealing with Silly Tourists

October 16th 2009 01:24

Thanks to mum for sending me these - I got a good laugh. We all know that some people think us Australians are a backwards country and that we are all Crocodile Dundee and that Kangaroos bounce across the Harbour Bridge. On an Australian Tourism Website pending tourists to our lovely country decided to ask some questions which they thought were completely justified. The officials of the tourism website obvioulsy had a great sense of humour and these answers are the actual responses by the website officials.

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia ? I have never seen it rain on TV,
how do the plants grow? ( UK )
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them
die. _____________________________ _____________________

Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? ( USA )
A: Depends how much you've been drinking.
_____________________________ _____________________

Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad
tracks? ( Sweden )
A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, take lots of water.
_____________________________ ___________________

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia ? Can you send me a list
of them in Brisbane , Cairns , Townsville and Hervey Bay ? ( UK )
A: What did your last slave die of?
_____________________________ _____________________

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing
in Australia ? ( USA )
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe .
Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the Pacific which does not
... oh, forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Kings
Cross. Come naked. _____________________________ _____________________

Q: Which direction is North in Australia ? ( USA )
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and
we'll send the rest of the directions.
_____________________________ ____________________

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia ? ( UK )
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do...
_____________________________ _____________________

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? ( USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is
oh, forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in
Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.
_____________________________ _____________________

Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia ? ( UK )
A: You are a British politician, right?
_____________________________ ____________________

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round?
( Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is
illegal.
_____________________________ ____________________

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can dispense
rattlesnake serum. ( USA)
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All
Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make
good pets.
_____________________________ _____________________

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its
name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. ( USA )
A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum
trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them. You can scare
them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.
_____________________________ _____________________

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you
tell me where I can sell it in Australia ? ( USA )
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.
_____________________________ _____________________

Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is
smaller than the male population? ( Italy )
A: Yes, gay night clubs.
_____________________________ _____________________

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia ? ( France )
A: Only at Christmas.
_____________________________ ____________________

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( USA )
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.

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Raids Save over 50 Chocolate Child Slaves

October 16th 2009 00:13

Further to my article on Sydney Table that Cadbury was going Fairtrade raids on the Ivory Coast have rescued over 50 children. This information is horrendous and unacceptable in our world of today. Sitting comfotably in Australia in a blissful environment makes it much easier to assume these things could not possibly happen around the world but today while we sip our decaf skinny mocchas (OK - I know I am probably the only person that drinks this) and browse the internet kids around the world are being abused and forced to work as slaves.

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Glorious Insults

October 15th 2009 21:56

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Whale Action - Martin Place - 19th October

October 14th 2009 09:23

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Why do our written numbers look like they do?

October 10th 2009 00:00

Thanks to Pete for sending me this. It was so interesting and great to know that you all may find it as interesting as I did.

Do you know why numbers look like they do? Someone, at some point in time, had to create their shapes and meaning

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Twisted Shoes

September 27th 2009 21:13

London architect Julian Hakes has designed a pair of really bizarre, twisted shoes with no foot plate. Called Mojito, the design consists of a single piece that wraps around the wearer’s foot, forming support for the heel and ball. To me this looks too weird. It would have been nice to see pics of the shoe on a person. Kudos for ingenuity and originality but is this one of those designs that look cool but is totally impractical? But I thought the shoe was odd enough to spark some interest. Peeps - would you wear these?