Hey everybody, remember how I was organising that weekend BBQ, and everyone said that a better day to have it would the NEXT Saturday? Well, that Saturday is now this Saturday.

This is just a quick reminder that I am having a BBQ at my house on Saturday night, followed by the watching of a wicked movie. Right now it looks like we will be watching a comedy released within the last year. Yay!

Everyone should get to my place at around 5PM or so, so that we can take our time, but still do the bbq-ing during the daylight hours.

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Also, a few weeks ago I spoke at the graduation ceremony for the class of 2009 at my old high school. When I told Calsie, he said I should be blogging about stuff like this, rather than my opinions on Grain Waves Chips, so here is a quick summary.

I got to the hall pretty early. So early in fact that I missed out on dinner, because the night ran so late.

It was weird to see the old teachers from back in the day. Some look different, some look the same. Some were older, some unrecognisably so. They were talking to me like I was an adult or something. Weird. And there has been a lot of staff turnover in the last few years.

I was speaking third, after the principal, and the head of the P&C. It was nerve wracking, and I was afraid that my speech was gonna run longer than any of theirs. I started by thanking them for the opportunity to speak, went on to inform them that "10 years ago I was sitting right where you are now", even though technically I was in a function room at Observation City in Scarbrough, and not in a church hall in Balcatta, and I basically told them what I had achieved over the past ten years. It seems like I did a lot more in the first few years. It also seems like I was constantly travelling, when it all comes out your mouth in a couple of minutes. I got a couple of laughs by bagging out Melbourne and Vancouver, and the teachers said it was really good.

My old english teacher was excited by the fact that I wrote for Grok at uni, and asked to see some of my work. I told her I would try to get it to her, but I think she would be less excited once she read it. I think our awesomeness may be generation-specific.

I was pretty nervous up there though. I had spoken in front of large numbers of people before, most notably at school assemblies and my own graduation, but not this many, and not since high school. After starting a little shaky, it all worked out pretty well though.

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Latel I had been sooooooo busy, what with tons of work, and too many extra-curricular activities that I had been ignoring music a little bit. Lately I have been going onto the PC in the games room and playing Pharaoh while listening to my iTunes. It has helped remind me exactly how much I love music. I have also been listening to a little bit of Beulah at work, and the melodies are starting to stick in my brain.

Sooo, I really like music, but I haven't really found any NEW music this year that I have LOVED. So, please lend me your suggestions, and I will suggest to my mum that she mosy into JB HiFi and get me a christmas present.

Cameron Out.

This past Sunday I slipped out into the back yard to cut my fingernails. I could smell the neighbours BBQing. And it smelled sooooo good.

So I brushed some of the cobwebs off the barbeque, cleaned the hotplates and fired 'er up. And it was incredibly tasty! One of the best meals of the past few weeks.

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So now I have a plan. I propose that we have a fun summer BBQ at my place sometime over the next couple of weeks, and we combine it with a bit of a movie night. I reckon we should go to Blockbuster and rent something that everyone wants to see, but missed out on at the movies. I am also happy with rewatching something if no-one else has seen it, and it is wicked.

So, what Saturday/Sunday arvos are people free?

And what movies would people want to watch?

I think that I am totally booked up this coming weekend, and I am free the following Saturday and Sunday.


Also I did not see: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Fanboys, Adventureland, Observe and Report, Bruno, Funny People, Paper Heart, or The Final Destination.

Just for the lulz yall.

Today I ate a packet of 'Grain Waves' wholewheat chips.

I also saw the movie 'Whip It'.

One of these things was great. The other was OK, tasted like a plain biscuit and felt like it wasn't too unhealthy.

The chauffeur(what an ugly word) guy came to the door of my house to pick up Dave and the Groomsmen(what a great name for a band!). He said: "I'm here for Dave?". He seemed confused that I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt at the time that we were supposed to get picked up. I told him that Dave was in the shower. He asked me if 'the boys' were ready. Clearly he didn't think I was one of 'the boys' due to my attractive outfit. I told him that I wasn't ready yet.

Then Sean, Ricky and I went into three separate rooms to get ready for the wedding. We were ready about 2 minutes later. I wonder if the girls took more or less time than us? When Dave was finished showering, shaving and suiting up we all left in style. We had beer and mead in the car, and the driver tried to 'bloke it up' with us. He kind of failed.

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The wedding ceremony was nice. My Mum came. She met Hero. My Dad and Sister came too. They all met Ness.

The wedding celebrant told us to stare at Dave the whole time. I did.

The girls were all looking awesome in their various dresses. I include Amy, the bridesmaids, and the crowd. (btw, did anyone get a photo of Jacinta in a dress?). However, the prettiest people there were Me, Sean and Ricky. We were wearing pink. I was kinda disappointed that we weren't wearing pink bow-ties with white polka-dots.

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In between the ceremony and the reception I had a latte, and we took a stretch limousine ride around the Nedlands area. Some of those houses are ridiculous. Today I went on a walk to increase my number of pedometer steps, and we walked past some of those houses. Including the one that Sean is going to stalk.

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The reception was great. I had free beer. And free champagne. The speeches were good. Especially Ricky's speech. It tip-toed the line between funny and not pissing off Mr and Mrs Dave quite well. The 5 meats were great. I think the best ones were the Turkey and the Pork. I was first in line for the food. I got tons of food in my first course. Then I got seconds. At this point I was feeling very full. Then everyone got a Pav. I don't normally like Pav, but I tried this one, and it was great. Then I ate Calsie's one. And I was really full, bordering on painful. So I drank a coke to melt the food in my digestive tract and transform it into burps, to relieve the pain. It didn't work. Then I ate a cupcake, and I had to undo my waistcoat to breathe properly. I went to the toilet, and when I came up from the basement I realised that I had missed the first dance.

I went outside with Sean and Ben (and later Merri and Cara) to get some air. I started to feel better. Then All The Single Ladies came on and I was pulled towards the dancefloor by an inexorable force.

I thought the dancing started too late. I needed more dancing. However it was _incredibly_ fun to dance to the YMCA with everyone.

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And then we were done. Much gratz to Amy and Dave on getting their asses married. Much thanks to them for organising this shindig. Much thanks to Ricky for returning the Best Man's suits. And much thanks to Calsie and Addie for giving me and Cara a lift home.

This has really been an awesome weekend so far.

And it might get even better tomorrow! (Five kinds of meat)

My weekend involved:
- Eating chicken, like 4 times.
- Weeding a lot, and mowing, and whippersnippering, because of the looming rent inspection.
- Watching classic 90's movies (Mrs Doubtfire, and Die Hard 3:With a Vegetable, thanks!), with great buds.
- Watching NFL games on OneHD.
- Putting on three NFL bets. I bet $10 on the New England patriots to win the Superbowl, at $6.20, and $10 on the Baltimore Ravens to win the Superbowl, at $13. So, if either of those very good teams gets up at the end of the year, then I get either $62 or $130 for my trouble, not bad. Then I also put $10 on the Indianapolis Colts +3 versus the Arizona Cardinals. The Colts won by 21, and I need to go and collect my $17.90 from the TAB. Woo! I could become a gambling addict so easily.
- I didn't watch the footy final, but it sounded good.
- I need to play me some guitar. Also, some guitar hero.

I love youse guise.

I have sore feet.

Today I wandered all over sydney in search of two things. Firstly I was searching for a three year anniversary present for Cara. It seems like I searched every shop in Sydney, and every stall in The Rocks Markets. I will not give away the results of my search though.

Also, I had looked up the locations of Sydney Nandos online, and spent a really long time trying to find one, eventually discovering it in an underground food court. Clearly we need 3D google maps.

When I returned to my hotel I decided that it was time to explore. I hadn't seen anything beyond the front desk, breakfast cafe and my room, so I decided that it was time for me to find the pool. I did, and it looked sweet, and I am headed down there after making this post, but on the way up to my room I decided to try to use a different elevator. This one was closer to the cafe, and would be an easier route to breakfast in the morning. However once I got in I could not find the slot for my room key to go into.

Then the door opened, and in walked Gretel Killeen, one time mediocre->funny guest on good news week who became the host of big brother and the Telstra automated voice, if my sources are correct. Hold on I will check wikipedia. (No mention of Telstra on her wiki, but it does say she was a voice actor. Hold on, this - http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Gretel_Killeen - seems to prove me right. Anyway.) She stepped in the lift and was all like: "Is your zappy thing not working?". I explained that I hadn't use the lift before and she directed me to the correct ones. She seemed nicer, and less fake IRL than on TV. Also I now have confirmation that celebs live here. I heard that apparently Russel Crowe keeps an apartment here rented out for himself during his Sydney stays. Maybe if I am lucky he will throw a phone at me!

Now, to go get sweaty in the gym and then jump in the pool to cool off!

So,

I am currently in Sydney on a work trip. I had just recently gotten over the flu, but I was still in that phase where your head is still a little blocked up, and there is still something floating around in your chest.

Then on the plane I was sitting next to a girl who had a cough that was 10 times worse than my own.

When I bought $28 worth of inflight snacks and entertainment, and got $39 back from a $50, she leaned over and whispered "How dumb is that flight attendant! She gave you too much, right?". I agreed and tried not to cakle too diabolically.

Only a day later I realised I was getting sicker. Curse that lady!

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Meanwhile I was sitting in Aki's Indian Restaurant having my dinner the other night, after another 11 hour day and a little man came up to me and said:
"The place is quiet tonight, don't you think?".
I looked around and realised it was only me and a british couple in the whole place, from his manner I assumed he was the owner, the mythical Aki.
"Yeah, pretty quiet." I replied.
"How is your meal?"
At this point I felt certain he was the owner, or the chef, and so I responded with: "Really good, I thought the goat curry was a risk, but it was fantastic."
Aahh, too much effort, I thought I could do it but I can't be bothered trying to remeber the conversation. Either way it turned out that the man's name was Ezekiel, and he was a Sydney based lawyer. We talked about Perth Indian restaurants, Sydney Indian Restaurants, growing up as an immigrant, family names and a lot of other things. He was an older man, and talked slowly and deliberately. It was nice that a complete stranger was paying me this much attention, and I definitely enjoyed his company. Then he gave me his card, before picking up his curry. Just before he left he told me I could call or email him any time I was in Sydney to have dinner together, or just chat. At this point I got the distinct feeling that he may have been trying to pick me up. I had mentioned Cara in our long discussion, so maybe he was actually just being nice, or shilling for work for his lawyers business.

Either way it was weird.

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I only worked 4 hours on Friday before the guys in the office sent me back to my hotel room. I got excited about potentially watching the footy match between St Kilda and the Doggies, but I could not stay up, and fell asleep against my own wishes at around 9:00PM.

I woke this morning at 7AM, and I have watched the first two episodes of 'Defying Gravity'. It is a pretty good show so far, even if it is basically Grey's Anatomy - IN SPACE! However, Ron Livingston is in it, and he is awesome as always. I am shocked that he is not a more famous/successful actor. He was incredible in Office Space and Band Of Brothers, but he never seems to get very good roles anymore.

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I am listening to my iPOD and reading the internets here in my hotel room. Everyone, I command you to update your livejournals. That is an order!

I head to Sydney tomorrow, at 6AM (getting up at 3:00AM). I am going over there to continue working on the project that has thus far led to me getting more stressed out than I have perhaps ever been. I will be coding in Perl (which, for you non-coders out there, sucks). And I had to code two apps, only one of which is working properly.

I will be over there for 2 weeks. And everyone else on the project is stressed out massively too. So I am afraid it will rub off and I will just freak out and jump into the water and swim for Luna Park.

Wish me luck!

I'ma gonna go get mahself some Ribs!

This past weekend I engaged in a series of extremely fun and effort intensive 3 - 6 hour activities.

Friday night I went to Calsies for Pathfinder. It was a ton of fun, although I struggled to pretend to have a low intellect. (Hold on, that sounds really arrogant, but my dwarf's intellect was 9, and I correctly guessed a puzzle.) I had KFC. It was fantastic.

When we returned home we watched the rest of the final episode of So You Think You Can Dance

Then on Saturday morning me and Cara got up and went shopping. We bought some food. Two loaves of bread. And I got a punnet of strawberries. They were cheap and looked good, but it seemed that another shopper was guarding them with her life. I used my reach and managed to finagle some good ones.

Then in the early afternoon Cara and I went to her Mums house to help prepare the house for Cara's Mum's 50th Birthday Party. We pushed a boat. And helped prepare platters of meat and cheese.

Then in the later afternoon we attended Cara's Mum's 50th Birthday party. It was pretty good fun, and we ate a few platters of cheese and meat.

On Saturday night we went to the viewing of 500 Days Of Summer at the Astor in Mt Lawley. It was preceded by a performance by Skipping Girl Vinegar, who were pretty good. We attended with Ferg, Rachel, Calsie and Addie. Four of my favourite people. The film was great fun, and while it seemed contrived in places it could definitely pull you in at times.

Sunday morning dawned, and Cara and I hopped in the car to head to work. Last week I tried to work on the weekend and set off all the alarms, but this week it all worked out. We both worked from like 8:30 until 2:00-ish. I got a lot done. I am getting better at Perl, and I am getting closer to finishing my current mini-project.

On Sunday afternoon I went over to Ferg's house, and brought my music book, tuner, capo, distortion pedal, amp, guitar and ukelele. Rachel was also there. We recorded some of my songs. I still had a bit of a cold, and I am still bad at singing when other people are in the room. I also heard some of Ferg and Rachel's songs. They are really good. And one of the songs is seriously super-awesome.

After this I headed home and cooked up a dinner of my Cameron's special fried rice. I like to change it up a bit, and this time I added in some Chinese Cabbage. It was barely noticeable. But at least I didn't spoil the food.

Then we went to the movies to watch Inglourious Basterds. It was pretty good. It was quite violent, and quite wordy. But it is somewhat expected in a Tarantino film. I felt like he rushed the ending though, it could have all wrapped up a lot nicer I think. It was amazing how much I was disgusted by the violent atrocities being carried out against evil people who had sanctioned previous violent atrocities. I suppose part of the point of this film is that if you are this disgusted by horrible things happening to the Nazis, then it highlights just how incredibly disgusted you should be about the atrocities that the Nazis committed against the innocent Jewish race.

Then we got to bed late, and I got up and kept going this morning.

A very productive weekend, but I haven't done laundry in quite a while! I need a quiet one!

So, here is a fun thing for anyone who played the first Professor Layton game. It is the second one, and they have a little interactive bit on the website: http://professorlaytonds.com/.

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Also, has anyone heard of this band? They seem to be like a 'The Pixies' that you could introduce to your parents. Like a little newer, and a little cleaner. Stellastarr. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLojv5izuB4

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Work is stressing me out. I assume that is the reason for my recent sickness. But soon I will be able to relax more. Ths little project will be over some day.

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I have recently been going to my CD collection, and then choosing a CD by randomly selecting a column and row of my collection. Using this technique I have listened to the following CD's over the last three weeks:
- Video Hits '96 compilation
- The Unfinished Spanish Galleon of Finlay Lake by Spiderbait
- Stankonia by Outkast
- Good News For People Who Love Bad News by Modest Mouse

It is a great way to listen to old CD's that you can still enjoy, but might be unlikely to actively select.

Your homework tonight is to listen to the third CD down from the second dolumn across. If it is awesome, if it is embarrassing, or if it is run of the mill, then feel free to comment below and show me what you got.

I woke up this morning and felt like crap. Hopefully it aint too serious, either a really bad cold, or a flu. I got the chills and a headache.

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In happier news I saw district 9 last night, and I liked it a lot.

I just ate Nandos.

I got this from Frog.

Comment on this post saying you want a letter - I'll give you one, then post to your journal your five favourite songs that begin with that letter - along with downloads if you like. Or music videos... whatever works!

This is tough, I can't think of any songs starting with G off of the top of my head.

( my choices... )

Man, that was hard.

I played 2 games of bball this week. Both close losses. And now my left knee is really sore again. Number of scrabble games played this week: 0.

Law and Order: UK seems to star Jamie Bamber. Also Freema Agyeman.


Here is the cast picture:

And I leave Melbourne really soon.

So, here is an email I sent out. I am interested in your thoughts. Also, I just remembered Kill Bill.

( The Noughty Decade )