makumaro.net

Fast Weekend

Weekends pass too quickly these days.

Watched Miss Saigon on Saturday night and found it a feast for the senses. It was very well choreographed and the props/actors just seemed to blend in seamlessly. It’s a habit I have of dissecting shows as I watch them to see how the production values fit in. The sound acoustics were generally excellent with the actors voices sounding absolutely crisp in the theatre and the lighting juz perfectly focusing on the characters that were leading the show.

Miss Saigon was fast paced and kept to the story line and as with highly rated show, tragedy is an essential ingredient to make the characters endearing to the audience. There’s also the comic relief in the form of one of the characters called the Engineer, played by a bald Asian with a beard. There’s also the must see element of the helicopter taking soldiers away from Vietnam. The original London play I heard had a real helicopter on stage but as this theatre in Melbourne was much smaller, they made do with a very good 3D rendition of the helicopter, coupled with spatial sound effects that gives the helicopter’s rotors/engine a sense of direction and distance.

There are some overly extended parts I felt weren’t too necessary in the show, but then again, I’m not a play editor and wouldn’t know good from bad. Overall a very good play and I can see why it’s highly recommended.

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On Sunday, was with Jerome at the food and wine festival along the Yarra River. Coffee was dispensed cheaply (half the price of a usual cup) but due to the need for making numbers in drinks, the first booth we encountered had poorly made coffee. It was bitter and never even got pass the second sip before it was duly discarded. I think it was because the barista never rinsed the grouphead after each coffee, leaving grounds behind and its constant recycled state left a bitter aftertaste.

Left the coffee and went to the meat of the event. There were 500+ stalls of wineries that displayed their wares and for a modest fee of $25, you got a cheap plastic glass that you could fill with that tasty grape juice to test the exotic flavours of wine from each cellar. Heh, I think I’ve only ever had Australian wines and am still curious what French wines taste like. Sure the grapes all originated from European countries but being grown on Australian soil, along with the eccentric weather patterns of the regions they grew in gave them varied features.

You read about the description of the wine on labels or in book reviews and you get all sorts of exotic words that describe the taste of wines like peppery, having blackberry or honey fragrances. I realise that if you drink enough wines, you can start tasting the subtle differences and you can actually recognise the type of grape (like a shiraz or a pinot noir) that was used to make the wine. Each have their distinctive fragrances and can taste complex and full bodied or just watered down.

Jerome and I were like bees from flower to flower, just sampling all the wines as we went along. The tastier wines were all in the region of $50 a bottle. Sipped enough wine after an hour that we decided to hunt for food. Had Nandos chips in their special hot Peri-peri sauce. By then my taste buds had dulled and everything tasted similar after that.

I sobered up towards the end of the wine tasting tour and we went for another coffee after that. Heh, two conflicting types of beverages that should not be had together as the strong taste of coffee kills the delicate highlights of wine. *slurp*. Ended up with only a bottle of dessert wine, a Buller Tokay, which would go very nice with a slice of baked cheesecake I imagine.

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Finished my Justice model. Heh, pictures will follow soon after when I have time to pose it. This model feels a little more intricate compared to the previous two, and its like more thought went into the design as pieces are combined in ingenius ways to get the colour combinations right.

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Semi sleepy now and waiting for the seaon finale of Battlestar Galactica. Been reading about viewer comments on the direction of the series and while I can see why people complain about the character driven stories of the last few episodes, it’s the human elements of the show that make this sci fi stand out from what I’ve watched before. Heh, forums online are buzzing with activity as people discuss the cliffhanger season ending (and I’m still sitting here waiting to watch it!). It’s such a good series because the producers aren’t afraid to radically change lead characters and to give a sense of peril surrounding the remaining survivors of the fleet. Okay, this is pretty much ranting as you’d need to watch this series to understand what I’m talking about. Heh. *yawn*

Projects Galore

Been feeling very keen lately to get things done and I’m slowly starting on my to do list since the beginning of the year. Heh.

Vyanne got me a Gundam model from KL and this is the Mugen (heh, it’s actually Infinite) Justice model piloted by Athrun Zala (just had to type out this name, and I wonder how the Japanese come up with these ideas). It’s a pinkish/ purplish model and unlike my previous experiences with Freedom and Destiny, I’ve staggered building this model over a few days. It’s still headless but the main body is done, just need to get the body armour and weapons together before I finally piece together the head.

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Also had this idea with Vyanne since last year to start a website where a few of us friends would upload photos and contribute feedback to each other’s work. I registered the site over a month ago and did some research for a web photoblogging piece of software. Heh, after all that testing, ended up with WordPress again as it was the easiest and most flexible system for uploading pics, writing short blurbs and commenting. Everything else required separate FTP programs and other technical know how that I’m not sure everyone would be comfortable learning. The site was left in limbo once I got it up and running as I wanted to design a proper template for it. Me being lazy and somewhat busy doing other things, just finally decided to look through premade themes for WordPress and loaded one up that I liked.

So without further ado (like there is any raptuous applause going on, other than in my head), I present to you this project site I’ve been working on. It’s called shutterbuddies.net. Vyanne wanted a ‘shutter’ in the name and buddies just sounded quaint for the purpose of this site. So we stuck to a name and the dot ‘.’ net at the end of the domain name was just because the dot com was taken by somebody just wanting to make cash off people who actually have a real need for the sitename. Besides, dot net is more apt as com means commercial and we are just doing this for fun. So far (as of this writing) there’s only been food pictures posted up. Heh.

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The last project I’ve been working on is this very site you are reading. Come up with something radically different from previous designs and I’m liking it so far. As I always try to outdo myself, this one is a little beyond my league at the moment and all I can do is to work the idea slowly until I manage to sculpt something I’m truly happy to let go life.

I do realise that a lot of things I do stem from one small idea and they slowly evolve into something bigger and that small idea will become just become a fraction in the whole idea. It’s just like life, and no matter how daunting the big picture is, it’s the little steps you take to move along that give you the confidence and willpower to persevere until your efforts pay off.

Self Motivation

On Sunday I tried to run two rounds around Princes Park. I failed miserably.

I had managed to do it the week before, but I knew in my mind before I even step foot on the park trail that I was doomed to fail. It really is about self belief, knowing that you can do something and setting your mind to it. I had already mentally pictured being able to do one round and I did manage that without too much effort but just started balking on the second round. I only managed short spurts before slowing to a stroll in the last third of the round. Jerome on the other hand, ran three rounds without stopping. Heh, his joints started to ache and he was short of breath towards the end, even having stitches in his gut, but he persevered and ran all the way.

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What makes us able to achieve something? Having a goal in mind, and knowing that we can push ourselves to achieve it. I know my legs can carry me 2 rounds without question. My heart and lungs might not be able to keep up, but they can be bent to push my body through. I have done it before, and I know I can do it. By now you can realise that a lot of it has to do with mental strength, as while bodies differ in shapes and sizes, if you keep your rhythm, you can push yourself through any hurdle.

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I have lost my rhythm over the last two weeks. A little off momentum, that I can’t seem to work as efficiently as I know I can. Perhaps it was pushing too hard, going for goals I wasn’t comfortable with, in achieving the amount of things I wanted to do and doing so with the bare minimum amount of rest. Heh, the body can’t really be coaxed to work more than it can sustain. You could try, but sooner or later fatigue will catch up with you. It’s just like trying to run two rounds, and there’s no cheating your body by running faster so that you can reach your destination sooner. Your body will burn out and instead of reaching earlier you end up losing momentum and arrive much later than expected.

So I must emphasise again, keeping rhythm and having a feasible goal will keep you motivated to do something. Trying too hard and your body gives in, and not trying hard enough, your body will slack off and you will feel sluggish, even if you were capable of doing it to begin with. The negative thoughts will just impede your progress.

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Heh, maybe it’s a technical way to analyse how we achieve the things we do, but not being afraid to push ourselves through, while maintaining a steady rate, allows us to achieve almost anything. So the next run I go on, I will do the two rounds without stopping, cause once you do, the fatigue sets in and no amount of cajoling will get you moving again.