So INfront’s Designer Disco kicked ass last night. So great to see some of the old crew (designer veterans yo!) and meet some new faces too. I snapped a few pics but I did spot photographer Keith Saunders (who took shots of me for the BIG exhibit) rattling off a few shots too so I’m hoping Keith will send me some better shots soon.
We’re (Australian INfront) putting on Designer Disco tonight, the official after party for Sydney Design Festival. Kicking off at 10pm, we’ll be taking over the Civic Hotel so come along if you’re reading yeah? I’ll be there, with camera at hand and my dancing shoes on too!
More info here.
I dropped in to check out BIG today at the Object Gallery Surry Hills (an exhibition I was featured in as part of Sydney Design 2010). It’s small but really fun, especially the slides on the lightbox that you have to close one eye and peek into. They’re damn amazing (so 3D!).
A few pics:
BIG – put together by designer Stephen Goddard and photographer Keith Saunders.
Screen on entry (BMU RPRSNT!).
The exhibition space. That’s me at the back left in the lightbox.
These photo slides were sooooo good and added a level of interaction which is always great at exhibitions (if it was me I’d have done the entire exhibition in this style!).
It’s the me!
My little blurb.
Nice to see the bike path in between the foot path and the road outside the gallery too, very cool and the way it should be!
The exhibit runs until the end of this month. More details here.
Christina and I thought we’d make the most of the great weather so we dropped into Paddington Markets to buy some bread and also to consume the best Belgian chocolate waffle we’ve ever had (sincerely, don’t ever remember a waffle tasting better than this!).
Random: real estate sign.
I was doing pretty regular design talks at various schools a few years back and Daniela, who used to teach at Shillington College, remembered me from a talk I once gave there. She’s been teaching design at Kogarah TAFE for the past few years and a few weeks ago she asked me if I’d be interested in talking to her students. Despite my initial hesitation (no matter how many talks I do I always cringe at the idea of getting nervous in front of a crowd) I said yes and today I headed in to talk.
I spotted this in the TAFE carpark. When I got to the lecture theatre I realised I needed to borrow a laptop to present with (!) and it turns out that the guy who owns this car was also the guy who lent me his laptop (I realised this because the desktop wallpaper on the laptop had this car on it!).
The room before students came in.
The students after the talk (I presented for about 1.5hrs).
The only catch was that there was no money to pay for my time but Daniela did promise to pay me with some good wines and that she did!
I’ve come full circle with talks. I used to focus on creative process but now I focus on getting to do the things I want to do through design (for me it’s cars, bikes, fish tanks or anything else I choose to be obsessive compulsive about!). It’s about being in the zone all the time because I want to be in the zone, not about forcing myself to be in the zone on something I’m not at all into.
As usual I walked away on a high. It’s rewarding to reflect on getting out of my comfort zone and hopefully I planted a few good seeds in the minds of the students too.
Morphs.
Middle section.
The water is “looking” VERY clean but as of today the Nitrate test still reads 50ppm (high!). I’ve posted up a call for help here: http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=219668
There are a few great suggestions in there. I’ve just got to try to give some of them a go slowly and not all at once!
I really wanted to know what was under the rock work. The middle bommie is the smallest so I took the entire bommie apart (moved rocks to the side) and to my surprise there wasn’t THAT much crap under there. I siphoned the substrate clean and put the rocks back a little more centred than before to allow water flow behind the bommie.
PS: I did find some fleshy bits on some rock from corals which have long died off (their bases). I’ve removed these pieces of rock. I also did find 2 peppermint shrimp under the biggest rock at the base and one MASSIVE dark brown brittle starfish the size of my hand!
Freaky stretch!
Christina’s been sick for months now (since before she left for China). Initially the doctor diagnosed it as tonsillitis and after 2 courses of antibiotics we’re now waiting for a blood test to see if it’s perhaps glandular fever.
Mia’s been keeping her plenty busy though and spends most of her time walking all over Christina’s keyboard or resting in her lap. Day 5 and she’s been great! Such a good girl!
In other news: I’ve been invited to give an inspirational design talk this Friday at Kogarah Tafe. It’s been a while since I’ve done a talk so I’m pretty excited and will spend some time tomorrow putting together my presentation. I’ve been slugging away at Modern Pet Shop too which is looking pretty damn good I have to say (click here to see what it used to look like and click here to see what it currently looks like). I’ve got another fashion store to do for Tendy’s wife so hacking the matrix is really helping me get up to speed with shopping carts. I’ve also been hired to help get a new community off the ground (a secret for now), automotive and community related but it’s coming along nicely. I’ve been keeping up daily maintenance on the fish tank and last of all Peter from Bodyform (he’s arguably the best body kit manufacturer and fitter out there) has asked me to re-design his web site. Busy? Yup. Stressed out? Yup but it’s good stress and I’m loving everything I’m working on at the moment.
Mia playing.
We were a little worried that little Mia would cry all night (despite Russian Blue’s being quiet cats the breeders let us know that Mia was the most vocal of the bunch!). Amazingly she slept through the entire night, in the kitty room without making a sound (phew!).
Our little bundle of fluff, early in the morning, checking out the garden.
We couldn’t resist letting her out of her kitty room. She’s a good explorer though she cries when she’s exploring an area where she can’t see or hear us.
She’s tiny but she’s grown twice the size in just 3 weeks (since we first saw her at the breeders).
Later that day Jamie, Richie and Mum came over to play!
Mia’s getting lots and lots of pressies too (so funny).
Jamie (might as well call my sister ‘cat lady’!) played with Mia so much that she conked out early afternoon and pretty much stayed KO’d until bed time and once again she slept through the entire night without a meow. She’s so good!
A good turnout!
I met Ravi. He’s deaf so we communicated via his iPhone. Highlight of the night for me!
Speeches (in which I was handed a bag of goodies and a bottle of wine!).
Our installation went off. I got so much great feedback on the night and people were actually playing with the 3D shapes which was great to see.
Despite feeling tired (my left eye is twitching uncontrollably!) I made it to the See-Saw opening night tonight. All the students I mentored were there, all the other students, mentors + friends and family too.
It’s been a really fun experience and I’m super happy with how it all went. The emails I got yesterday from my group thanking me for being involved made my day (it’s most important to me that they had fun!).
Nyaw!
Mia came home this morning. She’s settled into her kitty room nicely and right now she’s fast asleep! We’re pretty sure she’ll cry when she wakes up and realises we’re not still in the room with her though!
I’m feeling pretty seedy right now thanks to all the champagne I drank last night at my cousin Nicholas’ 21st.
Penis cake.
Nicholas’ girl Romina.
Yummy canapés were served all night.
Nick’s B’day cake. Nuts huh?! Like me Nicholas is super into robots, he’s even studying mechatronics at uni.
At one point Nicholas’ parents put on a video they had made on his 1st B’day. I had a memory of it as he was crying the whole night but seeing footage of it just blew my vague memory out of the water and seeing footage of my Dad almost made me fall over. He looked so good! Highlight of the night for me, for sure.
Nicholas’ speech (looks like amazing cakes have always been the way!). He’s such a good kid.
After the speeches the entire room became a dance floor. My aunty Helen (Mum’s youngest sister), her guy Michael and my Mum getting down!
Guest book signing.
I was pretty wasted at this stage. Random snap of my sister Jamie at the car park pay station.
Richie and Jess.