Random Things...

Some questions for my musically inclined friends.

My brain has started writing again, not a bad thing, and the story it's decided to latch on to is one that has been wandering around my head for many years. The original idea came to me well before I moved from Brisbane to Melbourne (the story is set in Brisbane as a result), and back then I probably was up with music enough to know the things I want to know.

Unfortunately, nowadays I don't keep up with music anywhere near enough so I'm really not sure of a number of things.

In the story, a group get together to form a band (rather cliché, I know). The type of music I envision them playing is somewhere in the prog rock to heavy rock spectrum. I have a lot of Muse in my music collection (blame Sim) and I've been listening to them a bit lately, and that's along the lines of what I'm thinking of. My first question is, what else should I be listening to, and also, what have they been listening to, to get them into playing that style in the first place?

At one point in the story, the protagonist tries out for the band as lead vocals, and wants to impress. He's got the talent, he knows what they want, and he really wants to be part of this band. What song would he choose to sing? As I said, he's got the talent and the voice and all the rest. What one song should he do to make the rest of them realise that he's the one they want?

My final quest is one of band composition. The band will end up being eight people. I know there are 2 drummers (don't ask), a keyboard player, and the protagonist will be lead vocals and will probably play some instruments at times. What other instruments/roles should be in the band? There will probably be a lead guitar and a base guitar, but what else? (There will actually be a ninth member, but he'll end up being the manager, etc, not because he's not musically talented, but because he's still new at all this.)

If this ends up getting written and if it ends up getting published, etc, anyone who helps out will probably end up in the acknowledgements, and probably even a signed copy, etc. There's a lot of ifs there, but that's writing for you. :)

Big thanks in advance if you can help.

A thought has been wandering through my head of late, and it's something I have been mulling over for a while.

There's all this talk about equal marriage and all that, and it leads me to ask one very simple question:

What is your definition of marriage?

Please let me know what it is to you. Also, I would appreciate if you could spread this far and wide. I want to hear from a much wider audience that just my friends.

The latest dead tree volume of Howard Tayler's awesome web-comic Schlock Mercenary is open for preorders.

I have been a big fan of Schlock Mercenary for ages, and happily share the addiction whenever possible. Howard is also a cool guy. :)

He's also running a competition allowing people to win advanced copies. Isn't that a nice thing to do? :)

From the Balonne Shire Council Facebook page, about 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon:

MANDATORY EVACUATIONS DECLARED FOR ST GEORGE

At a joint meeting of the St George LDMG and State agencies, it was decided that mandatory evacuations were required to ensure the safety of the members of the public in St George.

Recent Bureau of Meteorology forecasts indicate that upstream rivers are rising quickly and the Balonne River may peak in St George between 14 and potentially up to 15 metres.

The river is likely to reach 14m by approximately 9pm Monday evening and continue to rise throughout Tuesday and reach a peak of up to 15m overnight on Tuesday night.

These heights will be record levels for St George. The previous peak was 13.4m in 2010.

Residents of St George are required to evacuate by road before the Moonie Highway is cut by floodwaters, which is expected to occur sometime in the early part of Sunday evening. Current estimates indicate the Moonie Highway may be closed sometime tonight and residents should closely monitor local road conditions.

For those without their own transport, buses will leave the St George Showgrounds at 5pm and 7pm this evening and take residents to Dalby.

For residents requiring additional information, there will be a Community Information session at 4.30pm at the St George Showgrounds.

For those who do not have family or friends to go to, evacuation centres are opening at Dalby Showground and PCYC. Both centres will accept restrained pets.

Additional police resources have been positioned in the town to ensure property security.

Those who do not have their own vehicles should register with Balonne Shire Council on 4620 8888 for evacuation by bus to Dalby while this remains possible.

Air evacuation to Brisbane is being organized to ensure evacuations can proceed after the Moonie Highway closes. Air passengers will be restricted to 10kg of hand luggage only.

Pet owners are reminded that animals can not be accommodated on emergency transport, so pet owners are strongly advised to arrange road evacuation for their pets where possible.

Arrangements are being made with the RSPCA to care for pets which cannot be evacuated. They should be appropriately restrained (leash or cage) and brought to the St George Showground gathering point.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh urged people to follow the directions of authorities.

"This is a very serious situation and I urge people to cooperate."

Mayor Donna Stewart said she strongly urged people to self evacuate for their safety.

For further information please call 4620 8888.

This map shows the town of St George.

The pin is 28 Alfred St. That's the home I grew up in, and my brother's home now (after he bought it from Mum and Dad). To give you an indication of the problem, that house is at the higher end of town. You don't really get the impression when you're there but there is a gentle slope from the north east end of town down to the south west end. The river bank at the north east end is fairly high (I would guest about 10 meters or so. We used to love riding down it on our pushbikes into the river when we were kids), while the one at the south west end is more of a beach.

Draw a line from my brother's house to the north east parallel to the river and another one directly south until you reach the Carnarvon Highway. If the water reaches my brother's place, everything on the river side of those two lines will already be under water.

People are already requesting anyone who can evacuate to do so. At the moment, the flood looks like a record.

It's kind of disturbing to be reading these news reports and thinking to myself "I know these places" and "I know these people".

(Yes, I'm still here. Still reading everything, just not posting much, ok?)

This year marks a first for me. This will be the first time in my life that I won't be having Christmas as my parents place. They're having it at mine!

Mum and Dad are on a cruise at the moment (two weeks going around New Zealand, then two weeks going around New Caledonia, Fiji and the like) and get back to Sydney the morning of Friday the 23rd of December. Of course, Mum didn't want to have to try and organise Christmas in the day and a half after they get back, so I'm hosting it instead. Mum and Dad fly in to Melbourne from Sydney once they get back, and my brother is flying down from the Sunshine Coast on the same day.

They are here from Friday the 23rd till Friday the 30th. Part of that will be doing the Christmas thing, but also there will be tourist stuff.

What suggestions do people have for the tourist stuff? Keep in mind that I don't have my own car, so preferably would like things easily accessible via public transport, or organised tours and the like.

I'm not planning on making an itinerary, just collecting all the options and letting them choose what they want to do. Already pencilled in is the Queen Victoria Markets, Melbourne Zoo and Melbourne Aquarium. What else?

Hi all,

Unicon 2011 is open for players!

Melbourne's Spring gaming festival is running Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th of October at Melbourne High School. Check out the website (http://www.unicon.asn.au/) for event details!

Come along, we have con-orgs in corsets! :)

Don't expect this to carry on the entire time I'm here. It might, it might not. I just have the time and I'm in the right mood at the moment.

Today started at my parents place in Maroochydore. after breakfast I wandered down to the bowls club to watch my parents playing bowls, where the usual happened. I don't watch sport much, don't really care about it. However, if I actually watch a sports match and care about the outcome, the team I want to win will loose. When I got to the bowls club, their team was down 8 to 7, and won a point on that end brining it even at 8 all. They ended up loosing 17 to 8. Once I arrived they couldn't get anything to go their way, and the other team simply outplayed them. Oh well.

Then it was back home for a quick lunch and heading off to Brisbane airport. No flights to Cairns from Maroochydore so I had to book the flight from Brisbane instead, and Mum and Dad were happy to drive me down. The drive was uneventful, however I didn't realise we were close to the airport until we were there. The area surrounding Brisbane airport has changed dramatically since I was last down. The duplication of the Gateway Bridge is done, and all those weird-ass roundabouts on the way in have been removed.

Dropped off at the airport around two, checked in and headed up to the newly renovated Virgin Lounge. I have to say I don't like the renovations. It's all light and airy and hip and happening, or at least I think that's what they were going for. I just found it sparse. Weird counters that jut out for no apparent reason and waste space, and it didn't look complete to me. Anyway, the food and complimentary wireless was just as good as always.

My visit to the Lounge was a bit different to all my previous visits though. I think this is the first time I've visited when I've been going to someplace, all the other times it's been coming home. I pop into the Lounge if I arrive at the airport early and have time to kill. I doubt I'll ever do that coming from home (if I have time to kill, I'll do it at home, thank you very much) so it's only ever been when I'm leaving wherever I've been and am heading back. I think this made the visit much more relaxed because I had nothing to care about at the other end of the trip.

Flight was boring (which is a good thing) and we touched down in Cairns about 5 minutes early. For a change I didn't pull out the inflatable pillow to wedge in the small of my back (which I usually do to keep my back for seizing up during the flight) and surprisingly enough I didn't have a problem. Either the seats on the plane were better than normal, or my lower back is holding itself together better, or the week visiting Mum and Dad actually had relaxed me somewhat to begin with. I'm guessing a combination of the three.

Landed, grabbed my bag and got a ticket for the Cairns airport shuttle bus ($12 one way). I ended up sitting next to a hunky young man with one of those huge backpacks in his lap. Him and his mate (who was sitting the row behind) were probably the first ones on the bus so they spread out but when we left we had 19 out of a possible maximum of 20 passengers, so they ended up with people next to them.

I'm not complaining, as the one I was sitting next to was quite a hunk. They ended up chatting during the drive into Cairns (very short, less than 10 minutes) and the American twang in their voices was very distinct. I would probably place them as from the southern US (but not the deep south), something like southern California or across to Texas, or something like that.

Got to the hotel, unpacked, and decided to go for a walk. When we landed the pilot said it was a pleasant 20 degrees, and it was beautiful. By the time I'd finished unpacking it had gotten a bit of a chill in the air, but still beautiful. My hotel (the Mantra Trilogy) is right on the Esplanade, and I have a view of the water from the balcony. I wouldn't call it a beautiful view, as it's nighttime so I can hardly see anything, and it's low tide, so the harbour is currently a mudflat. Oh well, still nice anyway.

I walked up to the point, then back the other way to skate park (where the lights had just gone out, so I didn't hang around and watch) then back to the hotel. I bought a carton of orange juice and grabbed a whole heap of tourist brochures from the lobby before heading back up for the morning, and now I'm here.

I'm planning on leaving the curtains open so that the rising sun puts heaps of sunlight into my room (balcony is eastish facing) and we'll see if that's a good idea in the morning.

I'm currently on holidays on the Sunshine Coast visiting family. My brother and I watched two movies today.

First up was Cowboys and Aliens. I was expecting a mindless shoot-em-up involving cowboys and aliens, and got a hell of a lot more. A much richer plot, a lot more characterisation and they avoided a lot of the obvious cliches/stereotypes/tropes. I really enjoyed it. Plus, Daniel Craig is still a hunk.

Then after lunch was the new Conan: The Barbarian movie. This was the action/fantasy movie I was expecting to see. Lots of blood, lots of violence, exactly what was promised. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, but don't expect anything more than a basic fantasy/action flick.

My big complaint with Conan was the 3D. I don't know what it's like elsewhere but it was only showing in 3D at the Cinema we went to, and it would have very much preferred to watch in in standard and not in 3D. I found the 3D distracting and detracting from the movie. The biggest problem was the number of times a random piece of scenery "poked out" in front of what was actually going on, distracting my attention. Plus, the 3D glasses made the movie look darker.

On the plus side, Jason Momoa is one exceedingly hot hunk. Yum! Expect lots and lots of beefcake.

I'd like to ask for two bits of assistance for Pheno (roleplaying convention) this weekend.

Firstly, I fly in to Canberra at about 3:00pm tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. My lovely hosts (being Mark and Ingrid) are going to be running around madly organising the convention, so won't be able to pick me up. Is there anyone able to help me out? I want to get to the convention site by 5:30 for the GM briefing, but other than that have no need to be anywhere at any time.

Secondly, while I own all the props I need for A Darkened World I can't find some of them. I know they exist, don't know where I packed them. So, can anyone lend me some bits and pieces for the weekend.

It's not much, just an eye-patch for one character and a sling for another character. I think I need them for Sunday afternoon.

Anyone?

I've worked out the big problem I have is not with the move itself, it's with the packing. If the packing is done, the move is actually quite simple. Yes, it's big and it's annoying, but it's just people putting boxes and furniture into a truck, and the pulling them out of the truck again at the other end.

However, you've got to pull all the stuff out of the furniture and into boxes before they can do that, and that's the bit that stresses me.

I know what I want to get moved this Saturday, but moving it relies on the appropriate packing being done before that. Some will be tonight (I have an exercise class this evening, so won't be getting home until a bit later) and then the rest has to be done tomorrow night or it won't be done in time.

Anyone want to come over tomorrow night and help me pack, or at least provide moral support?

Well, the dates are sorted.

Travis and I go in Wednesday morning (26th May) to sign the lease on the new place and get the keys. We've put in the notice to vacate the current place and the hand over date will be Monday the 6th of June.

Move is booked in for Saturday the 4th of June.

Travis has sorted the electricity, gas and water, while I've theoretically sorted the phone and internet (phone being a Telstra thing, that's why I've only theoretically sorted it). Internet is pencilled in as being connected on Monday the 6th, but may be a day or two depending on how much fiddling around they have to do with Telstra. We'll see.

We've got almost 2 weeks overlap with the two places. I'm intending to use this overlap to make the move as easy as possible. I'm planning to move a hell of a lot of my stuff this weekend, so we don't have to worry about it next weekend, and so that there's more room in the house to pack the rest of the stuff.

So, is anyone willing and able to help me this weekend? If I get enough people willing to help I'm going to hire a ute for the weekend, otherwise I will hire removalists. Most of what I want to move over this weekend is boxes and crates, very little furniture. Plus, most of it will be going into the bungalow out the back of the new place, so easy to deal with at the other end.

I remember a number of people have said they are willing to help. Anyone?

Enjoy
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