Bands Bands Bands

On Friday I went to my 2nd 'Big Day Out' music festival. I went along with Steve this time (last time it was with Angela) and we got rather sunburnt and rather wet from the rain that came later on in the day. It turned into a big poncho fest, everyone streaming for the stalls which sold them. Luckily when I got to one of the stalls I was there in time to get the last poncho.
Anyway, after that it got me thinking about this this T shirt I have that I used to write on (with fabric paint) all the bands and concerts I've ever been too. I think that there may be no more room to write on it so decided I shall write a list on here.

SO....

All the concerts I have ever been to! (so far)

Blindspott My first ever gig! 2003
8 Foot Sativa + Deja Voodoo 2004
Muse + Pluto 2004
D4 + The Bleeders 2005
Shihad Awesome concert in the rain 2005
Foo Fighters 2005 and 2008
The Feelers + Thirsty Merc 2006
The Datsuns + D4 2006
Bass in the grass festival Darwin 2006
Living End
28 Days
Something for Kate
Pete Murray
Hilltop Hoods
The Herd
etc..
U2 At the Olympic stadium Sydney 2006
Eskimo Joe 2007
Blindside 2007
Pluto 2007
Muse again, 2007
Linkin Park 2007
Airbourne 2008
Def Leppard 2008
The Big Day Out 2009
Fantomas
Bullet for my valentine
Headless Chickens
Weta
My Morning Jacket
Pendulum
The Living End
Dropkick Murpheys
Serj Tankian
Karnivool + Battle Circus + These four walls 2009
Faith No More! 2010
30 Seconds to Mars 2010
Black River Drive + Shotgun Ally + Autozamm 2010
The Big Day Out 2011
Rammstein
Tool
The Deftones
Birds of Tokyo
Shihad
Iggy Pop
Airbourne
Stone Temple Pilots Will be in March 2011

I'm sure I've missed some...hmmm....
aha I have! adds in Airbourne...

2011

Well its 2011! What will come in this year ahead?

Maybe I will find a job, or maybe (from July) I'll do a web development course.
Steve has a few months more to go of Uni, and when he finishes he will find work until I finish my course (if I do that) and then he hopes to find a job within Geology, probably in Australia.

In March it will be our 7th year Anniversary (of being together)and in April Lisa is getting married! I'm going to be her bridesmaid. So at the moment were trying to sort out our dresses. Mines going to probably be a dark (midnight) blue.

I've finally discovered a cheap (replica) Blythe doll on trade me so I may be buying that in the next day or so! I was going to custom make one from parts off ebay but it may be cheaper to get this one (which is also custom made). There are lots of amazing clothes to buy for them on ebay, as well as custom made wigs and eyes.

Too much time, too much to do...

Took me 7 months but I finally remembered to write in my blog again, even though I was supposed to be writing something interesting each week.
So it's now November and even though I haven't been working or able to find work in this day and age called the recession, I've had a lot to do.
Apart from job searching which takes up a huge amount of time and effort, I have discovered a few new obsessive pastimes, the big one being genealogy.
My sister Mel started it all when she told me that she had bought a book to record the family history. Turns out it was the same book I had bought from a second hand shop a couple of years earlier but had never got around to filling in. Anyway this got us onto wondering who great grandparents were and the obsession stemmed from there...
I love researching and doing detective work. Once you are onto a hot clue its so exciting and you keep digging to find more! You have to be able to think and rethink clues to fit the pieces of the puzzle together and know where to look for tip-offs.
One thing I've learnt is that there are a lot of other obsessives out there (who have obviously finished their family research) who love to help others. I now have others here and overseas who are no way related to me that are emailing me with big chunks of information on my ancestors! It's amazing that they're taking their time to do it and a lot of the time it's unexpected and I'll just get an email saying bla bla bla...etc etc etc...
Some members of the family are hard to find much on and have created dead-ends (for now anyway!) and some of them are easily found...the longest chain I've made so far is 2 lines of great,great,great,great,great grandparents! Both stem from my Dads mothers side. So thats dating back to the 1700's. But it's too fun not to stop there!

Hypnic Jerk

Do you ever suddenly jolt awake when you're going to sleep?
I do and at the time it gives me a fright but I don't usually think anything more of it and go to sleep. Steve sometimes notices me twitching in my sleep too.
Last night when I was just trying to go to sleep, I kept jolting every few minutes so took a sleeping pill because it was annoying me. Today I thought to myself, why do I actually do this??

Apparently it is called Hypnic Myclonia or Hypnic Jerks. They happen when we begin to drift off to sleep as the muscles are relaxing. The brain thinks that we are falling or dying and trys to signal the limbs to wake up. This can happen in the REM stage of the sleep cycle (the eyes often twitch too during this time but we don't notice that.)
Usually only 1 jerk will happen a night but some people have many and that can be called periodic limb movement (PML). It is often caused by over tiredness or stress and possibly medication.
People who jerk awake often feel as if they are falling or have had a falling dream. I have never had a falling dream and dont think I have felt the falling sensation either.

Here are some accounts of what other people have experienced:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-hypnic-jerk.htm

This weeks article of interestingness.....Blythe

Blythe dolls are cool!

They're kitschy dolls in retro fashions, and I want one!

I first discovered Blythe dolls a couple of years ago but I cant remember where. I've never seen an actual doll, but you can find Blythe related accessories such as notebooks and writing sets in places like my favourite shop IKO IKO.

Blythe dolls were first created in the 1970's and based on the paintings of Margaret Keane.
Today Blythe dolls are customized by their owners, who can buy or sew clothes for them. Lots of photos of Blythe dolls can be found on flickr in a range of settings and poses.



To me they have an almost realistic quality to them when seen in the photographs. And sometimes when you see a photo of just the legs or in such a way that you cant see the face, you can barely tell it's a doll.




As I said before, I would love to have one of these and I'd be playing around, taking photos of it lots. But apparently they're quite expensive so maybe I can make a substitute Blythe with a similar doll.






http://blythopia.wordpress.com/

Koalas

"KOALA--Aboriginal name for native bear....
NATIVE BEAR--A small marsupial animal with grey fur and full expressive face (see KOALA)."
(From A Dictionary of Australian Words And Terms by Gilbert H. Lawson 1924)

I love Koalas, they're so cute. I had the great experience of getting to hold one in Townsville and it clung on to me like a baby.

"The koala is a fussy eater, only eating from several different species of eucalyptus (or gum) trees and very occasionally from some other trees such as wattles or tea trees. They will eat the leaves, shoots, fruits, flowers and even, at times, the bark from young branches. Koala bears (think Latin!) eat about 1 to 1½ pounds (450-680g) of leaves a day. That's about 10% of their body weight. The koala can usually get all the nutrients and moisture it needs from the oil in the gum leaves (have you heard of eucalyptus oil?) and the rain and dew which collects on them. Gum leaves are low in nutrition and contain certain chemicals which are toxic to most other animals. Koalas have special bacteria in their guts which enable them to digest these leaves."
http://www.squidoo.com/KoalaBears

A new fact every day/week

I have decided that everyday (or week depending on how much time I have) I am going to post up an interesting fact or tidbit of information or link to an interesting website. Today I have found an interesting site called Squidoo.com. It has all sorts of information on anything you can think of, written by all sorts of people. This will definitely be a useful site in future.

I'll start with an interesting piece from that site....
Tired of your plain old boring toilet seat?
http://www.squidoo.com/ToiletSeats