Tony Moynihan marries Vanessa McLean

Today my brother Tony married his girl friend Vanessa. I wasn't able to make it to London for the wedding, so I sent them this telegram:


Dear Vanessa and Tony,

First, I'll start off by welcoming Vanessa into our family and wishing her the best of luck :) she's going to need it.

I've know Tony all of his life, a large chunk of which has been across the Tasman, but the bonds of brotherly love are strong and geographical separation has not changed that.

I can still remember at primary school Tony sticking up for his older brother against the school bullies... A slightly embarrassing memory for me, but a good indication of his strength of character and loyalty.

I had been afraid that Tony would never leave New Zealand, but someone special entered his life, he got off his butt and worked his way to London. That had been the biggest and is turning out to be the most rewarding decision of his life.

Just over a year ago, our grandmother passed away, I know that she would have been so happy that one of her grandchildren had been married off and that she finally had a granddaughter.

Which makes me think that it is kind of surreal that I am going to have a sister in law, a welcome and much needed addition to our Male dominated family. Vanessa, I hope you don't make his sandwiches in the morning and when it comes to the house work, make him do the toilet!

I love my brother and we see each other far too sporadically, but thank jehova for Facebook, I get to see what you are up to and some oh so unsavoury photos... Watch out, I set mother up with a Facebook account too, so the mothers mafia still knows what you are getting up to.

Vanessa, you have made a great choice and I hope you and Tony have fun together on life's oh so bumpy road.

I wish I could be there with you today to celebrate and I look forward to meeting Vanessa soon. I hope you guys have a spare room.

I know Mum and Dad are very happy for the both of you and with all of my love, congratulations.

Marky Mark

I'm a published photographer...

Well, okay, that might be stretching it a bit, but one of my photos was selected by Schmap, a Melbourne Guide mash up, to be used in their latest edition.

It is a picture of some boys playing soccer in Albert Park Lake... I was there with Stephen, Mark and Timbo from Sydney...

Too funny :)

http://www.schmap.com/melbourne/sights_prahran/p=141504/i=141504_19.jpg

Windows 7 you more than make up for Vista!

So... I got myself a Dell Mini 9 from Vodafone on a plan which includes 5GB/month and the Mini 9. It came with a scaled down version of XP, which I'm over. Although I hate Vista, I feel like XP is going back and I'm just not into that.

So I did some Googling and found that people had been installing Windows 7 on their Mini 9 with some success and they also said that it ran better than XP did, so I thought, thank god I had signed up to the Windows 7 Beta program.

A day or two after I got the Mini 9 I installed Windows 7 on it and gave it a shot. I found that it did run better that when XP was on it, I loved the new interface and for a 'low end' spek'd laptop it was great.

I can't wait for them to release Windows 7 I want to use it on every computer I work on.

Great one M$ you've got a winner in this one!

I'm back!

Well, since my last post, I've moved to Prahran and have started riding my push bike to and from work.

I got a Scott Sportster P2 and I love it. I now have the freedom to get back and forth from work and home in around 20 minutes. That is half the fastest time I have ever made it using public transport.

Vista is a sack of S**T!!!

Okay, I've had enough!

So I was an early adopter of Vista and I loved it, well, I love the improvements that they have made to the interface.

I'm used to all the changes and I don't like to go back to the XP interface...

But god knows what they did under the hood! It would have to be the worst performing operating system they have ever produced. I'm sick of the lethargic response I receive when I click on something, I'm sick of my computer locking up and trying to catch up with itself and I absolutely detest the fact that an application will turn opaque and stop responding...

I am over Vista, I'd rather use DOS.

Microsoft, Windows 7 had better be all it's cracked up to be and it had better work on my Laptop.

Grrrr on you for Vista! It's a DUD!

Happy Birthday to Me...

Well, today is my birthday...

I've had lots of my lovely friends give me beautiful birthday wishes, which I would like to thank them all for.

This year, my theme is moderation and control. So I am having a very quiet birthday for once and going out for dinner with a couple of friends.

Currently I'm enjoying a glass or two of sparkling Shiraz with Ange and Oscar. I've taken the day off and are looking for a new place to live.

Love to you all.

mx

Ha Ha Oscar

She's out.

Barack Obama - Evita - Madonna

I am so happy and so pleased that the American people have 'come out' and voted for Barack Obama.

It is inspiring that someone with such intellectual and balanced judgment has been put forward to lead his nation. A nation that has so much potential to lead the world in showing acceptance and equality.

And here is an insight to the camp side of my life...

It just so happens, that at this time of Obama I have been exposed to Evita.

Are we sure that Andrew Lloyd Webber is not gay?

I loved Phantom and I love Evita. Fabulous.

I've only just come to see the similarities in their story... Although there are some major differences.

They have both envigorated their fellow country man to fight for their rights...

Wealth and prosperity to all... It's not a communist thought... Just check out this link, I read it today and think it's great...

Either way, they have/will bring a great revolution to their country.

Obama, I look forward to the next eight years of your presidency.

Proof that Australians have no taste

Not only did my favorite in Australian Idol, Madam Parker, get knocked out. My second favorite Roshani just got voted out too...

Two of the most talented contestants on the show, and look at all the rubbish that is left!!!

Look out Oscar, your favorite's head is on the chopping block! No one with talent is safe!

Madam Parker

All I can say is thankfully Madam Parker is still in Australian Idol!

Kat's birthday weekend away.

Well, what a weekend! Oscar had his summer range launch on Thursday night, which he had been working on for over a month. I had taken Friday and Monday off, as I knew Thursday would be big and it also meant I could stay away with Kat for an extra day.

The launch was great, Kat and Nugget came to that and left at a respectful time so they would be able to get up the next day, pick Darryl and Steve up from the AirPort and make it down to Wilsons Prom. I however did not.

After a trashy event and then going out, I was in no state to get up in time, then I went to another Fashion show, so I missed all the rides down to the Prom. Oscar offered me the use of his car so I invited him down. Saturday afternoon when we woke up, we jumped in the car and took off towards the Prom, armed only with a zoomed out Google Map's map.

I think that a WhereIs map would have been better as Google Maps are notorious for sending you the wrong way down a one way street. Combine that with the blonde nature of Oscar and Myself and we had a recipe for distraction.

It took us 6 hours to do a 2 hour trip. We missed freeway turn offs, took the long way round and then passed where we were supposed to be and drove all the way through to the point of Wilsons Prom.

We finally made it to the house at about 8. We even drove straight past Steve who was waiting outside the house waving to us.

The place was fantastic the front was all glass and offered amazing sea views. Pip and Phil cooked an amazing meal with a Mango salad and a Duck salad... hmmm



We spent the next day exploring the Prom, then crashed on the couch for idol with a couple of drinks we passed out (as per normal) on the couch.

The drive back wasn't quite as long but we did miss quite a few of the off ramps again...

Happy birthday Kat... x

Blockbuster dissapointment

Now I have been wanting to see Spiderman 3 and Transformers for a while now, especially with all the hype behind them.

I liked the previous Spiderman movies and Transformers were a childhood favourite of mine; I thought I was in for a treat when I hired them.

When we were hiring them I bumped into Hamish, a workmate, who was hiring something a little more 'high brow' and less commercial. I joked about the tackiness of our choices but I didn't care, I thought I was going to enjoy them.

Now the special effects in both movies were outstanding, and I'm sure that if I had seen them on the big screen they would have been fantastic. But special effects alone don't make a movie.

Spiderman: Now the story line was okay and very cliché. I knew there would be some soppy saccharine love storylines between Peter Parker and MJ, but at some stages I thought I was going to vomit. The villains kept appearing, it was like the whole cast was nearly against him at one stage.

The piece de la resistance which put the final nail in the coffin was the script. An average story line, with a terrible script that created tacky meaningless interactions between the characters totally overshadowed the special effects and made a hard to watch 3 hour monster! Now I do like to watch mindless crap, more often than not; so it’s a shock that I can look back at this and think it was 3 hours of my life I’ll never get back.

Transformers: I am a fan of SciFi or as my flatmates call it Mark TV, so I had very high hopes.

I remember when I first saw Independence Day many years ago, it was one of the first movies where aliens came to earth and started wreaking havoc blowing up the world’s most famous monuments. It was a movie where when the stakes were down the American people got together, stood up against the invaders, fought back and won. The movie shocked you with the destruction of Big Ben and the White House as the aliens demonstrated their awesome power and then welled up the emotion of pride as the human race showed their resilience when pushed into a corner.

I guess I’m trying to say that I’d seen it all before. This was another movie with a mediocre story line and a terrible script, loosely modelled off previously successful hits. I understand that this movie had to be appropriate for younger viewers to see, but so does The Simpsons and they manage to produce a clever and simple script week after week. Sickening feel good scenes with love scenes which made me glad I’m gay topped off what I classify as another disappointing waste of time.

It was definitely one of the worse nights on the couch I’ve had in a long time, it’s made me think that maybe I don’t appreciate the commercial blockbusters as much as I had thought.

And maybe they should start paying the writers more, well the ones that didn’t write these scripts. Check out Batman Returns, that was an incredibly well written movie.

Babel

We got out a couple of movies to watch, one of them was Babel. We got them home and a friend of Oscar’s, Niko, mentioned he had seen Babel and it was good, but deep and not humourous.

What a shock we were in for… A fantastic movie that I recommend everyone see. Amazing story line, fantastic acting and a deep message that leaves you with the realisation that one event can have repercussions that affect and flow through so many peoples lives.

One of the recurrent themes was impaired communication. From foreign language to deafness, the characters found themselves trying to communicate with those who didn’t understand or didn’t want to understand.

An amazing touching movie that left me upset as I felt so much for the characters. In my book a response like that to a movie signals a success.

I Just Ate It

I've just created a new blog. It's about what I eat and where I eat it.

I find that my meals tend to have a story and I felt like sharing it with the world.

I want it to be funny and I want it to have some reviews that will help people decide where to eat and where not to eat.

So be warned my friends, if you have me over for dinner you will no doubtly end up in my blog and your efforts will be reviewed and commented upon. If I'm gonna slag the meal, I'll dicuss it with you and if you don't like what I'm going to say I'll be polite and make it a short post.

I wonder if this means people with think twice about inviting me over for dinner... Or will it mean that you will take up the challenge and throw invites my way ;)

All this blogging... I don't think I've ever written this much before in my life.

Eat up.

Mr Moon you walk upon the water...

I'm sure there have been a million blog posts written tonight about the eclipse of the Moon tonight, so I thought I'd add mine to the list.

As I walked home, the moon was very bright and there were clouds hanging around, it looked like it was going to be a no show for the moon... ha ha ha

After calls from Mum and messages from Juz I finally got off my butt and went out and check out the eclipse. It was amazing, all red and not really there. It really brings home the concept of these huge objects floating around in space (The earth, sun and moon).

The thoughts going through my head were memories of the Solar eclipse I saw a couple of years back and the Headless Chickens' song Mr Moon.

Go Moon!

Fuck you McAfee!

Oh My God!

I just spent the last bloody hour trying to get my computer online! Now I'm not a computer novice by any description and I was ready to throw my laptop through the nearest window. But instead I've uninstalled McAfee and I'm venting by writing this blog post abusing their stupid unusable software!

So last November I got my brand new Dell M1210 laptop, I was a little disappointed that it came with an 18 month McAfee subscription and not a Norton one but hey, I thought I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and use it.

So, for the last 9 months or so, I've been really happy with McAfee. More than happy! It had been non-intrusive, there had been this nifty feature which identified safe sites returned in Google searches, the spam filtering in Outlook had been working really well.

I've had friends who had Norton and they had experienced no end of trouble with it being to agressive and I have friends who have Trend which had stopped all of their outbound emails... ha I had thought, thank god I had McAfee...

Tonight it all changed! Looking back there had been times when my internet connection just wasn't connecting so I had reboot the lappy and the router and eventually it had come up. But after doing that a couple of times tonight and not being able to surf the net, download emails or sign into MSN or Skype!

Okay, problem solving time... I could ping URL's so it meant that domain names were being resolved and I was connected to the internet. So I thought, well could be the firewall... I opened up the McAfee control panel and tried to turn it off, but it just didn't like that, there is no OFF switch, there is no OFF switch... Do you know how annoying that is? It's my PC when I say off I mean OFF! I know they say it's for saftey, feels more like they don't want their software turned off... So I opened up task manager and started hacking at the McAfee services and turning them off...

Woah... All of a sudden my MSN had connected... I connected to a site... Cripes... what was that... then all of a sudden everything crapped out again... I continued hacking at the services, hang on, didn't I kill you? The bloody things were regenerating and reloading! I'm sure that is for safety but it's bloody anoying!

So that was it, I uninstalled it, by now I was less than impressed... What had happened? I was online this morning, I hadn't turned the lappy on all day and then it wouldn't go tonight! I'm sure it's a combo of Vista and McAfee, but McAfee is easier to ditch than Vista is so see ya later and good riddence!

Plug: radar.net

So my latest addiciton is facebook... Can't remember if I've posted about this before or not, so this could be a bit of a repeat sentence...

Alas, I started with MySpace... It was fun for a while but sort of lacked some usability and just didn't keep my attention in the end, I found it frustrating... In comes facebook, I had signed up to both at about the same time and had focused on my MySpace profile. After getting bored with MySpace and the sudden take up of facebook in Australia I changed my focus. I find facebook better in the fact that your home page lists all the updates for your friends and yourself in one useable page. If you want to see more detail about someone's activities it's easy to view their profile. The layout is cleaner and there is no chance of someone creating some monstrosity!

The reason for this post is to mention radar.net, I was looking at facebook applications to add to my page and came across this... It's not like it's never been done before, but you email photos to an address and they are uploaded into your radar profile/account. The facebook application shows the photos and makes an announcement as to what you are doing and shows your photo with it.

I've just started using it and it's easy, there is even a java application that you can install on your phone to view the photos and edit the comments... very cool... I'd better watch how much traffic I put through on my phone, this could become an expensive hobby :)

The Amazing Human Body...

Today I went to The Amazing Human Body" Exhibition... I'd heard about this exhibition which was all these preserved and cut up human bodies... I'd heard story of one body which had been skinned and was setup as if he was holding it (the skin that is)...

People had called it grotesque when I had told them about it, I wasn't sure how I would find it...

The two words I'd use to describe it are fascinating and gross! The vertical and horizontal slices of the body has to be seen, If you've ever seen the Cell with Jennifer Lopez (one of her best) it's something similar to what is done to the horse!

So I didn't see a body holding it's skin, but there was an exhibit of a person's skin. It's perspex cover had no base and so it was just sitting over the skin and moved when pushed... Well the skin was just touching all the sides so I gave the lid a little push to see what the texture of the skin would be... I thought it would be all dry and hard... But it wasn't it was springy... errr gross...

Any way... it was amazing... deffinitely a must see... but it was still gross...

The family photo from hell....

This is my beautiful flat mates....

johnston Street Family

Matt and Ben

Here are some photos of my friends Matt and Ben...

Matt and Ben