Yesterday we went to the KCC Park near Sky, Victoria, to check out the Cocker Spaniel Show and of course we took Bill and Jo along too.

We seem to be the most prepared for most things, but unprepared when it comes to taking the dogs to a dog show. We forgot tape for our signs, the dogs water bowl and we forgot our own drink. We also neglected to realise the enclosure we have for the dogs is completely escapable by Bill.

Thankfully Gillian came to the rescue with her doggin cage with a lid so Bill couldn’t jump out and run around.

In the end if wasn’t a hugely successful day for PupMates, pretty sure we had spoken to most of the people there at the Dog’s Day Out and/or they had heard about us from Gillian. But I took some photos and that turned out a little more successfully.

Also made a time lapse, which we had had some height to add to it so we got a little bit of a better result, but it does OK.

I’m still going through the photos so there may be some more additions in the near future.

It’s a bit of a boring video, but it was a quick set up. “OSnap!” is currently available for free on the iTunes Store and I wanted to give it a go and see how it compares to the current app I’m using “Miniatures”.

This video was taken on an iPhone 4, about 1.5 hours worth of images (4888 photos @ 1 photo every second) at high quality setting in the application. Took over 3.5 hours to process the photos and an additional 2 hours to turn those photos into a time lapse video and then about 1.5 hours to upload it to Vimeo.

As far as apps go, I wouldn’t ever use this for a time lapse or anything else really. It is good that it saves the pictures in addition to the video, which most don’t, but it’s lame it takes so long to do anything.

What it does well:

• Produces sharp, clean images.

What it does poorly:

• Uses sliders for setting values. They are painful to control.
• Takes too long to do anything.
• Doesn’t output a standard size (because it’s capturing the photo rather than a video).

What it doesn’t do at all

• Capture audio, because it’s just taking photos.

Recommendation:

• Skip OSnap! get Miniatures instead.

Yesterday I was grateful and fortunate to be given some Lego as a birthday present by Amelie and Elliot (and Nikki and Ben) and I couldn’t wait to get home and open it up. We had a great morning having breakfast with them and then checking out local toy store, Jasper Junior (one of our favourites).

Then home to put my lego together. Of course this would have been much more fun to do with the kids, but hey, it was still plenty of fun on my own.

I thought I’d make a time-lapse of it going together, but unfortunately, after setting up the iPhone4S to capture the action with my Gorilla Pod Focus and Gilf+, I forgot to check the phone’s battery level. We got part way through but not all the way. But it was a good proof of concept video and one I’ll repeat when next I get my hands on some new lego.

So here’s the video:

And for good measure, here’s what it looks like when it’s complete:

Last night we went down to Federation Square and caught up with Sue, Dee and Marie for day two of the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival. I found the link the other day, quite by accident, and sent it on to Suez who’s a big fan of indigenous music. Only after sending the link did I look at the line up and notice that Casey Donovan was also scheduled to play. And Casey was on right before Dan Sultan (the artist the girls love to love). So I wrote back to Sue and said we’d come along, weather pending because it was supposed to rain all weekend.

Well thankfully our weather forecasters have been off a little of late, and other than a few spits here and there, the rain stayed away.

When we arrived we searched for the girls, but couldn’t find them anywhere. After a good fifteen minutes I sent a text to Sue asking where she was, but there’s no way she would have heard my message over the sounds being made on the stage. And just after sending the message (before she would have gotten it) I look up and across the way is a group of people waving at us, and there they were. At one point in the search we would have been standing right behind them!

They had arrived earlier in the day day, wanting to catch other acts, so they had been standing there for quite some time.

The act that was on when we got there was hip-hop artist Radical Son. He was pretty standard fare when it comes to my exposure to hip-hop, which is extremely limited. He interacted with the crowd well and played a good set, ending with the adage “In judging me, you judge yourself.” Which I thought was a pretty good ideology in life.

Then the break, when David and I ducked off to get some food, and back for Casey Donovan.

Now if you don’t know Casey she, as she explained, was on Australian Idol about 8 years ago. During it’s second year on air. At 16 she was the youngest contestant on the show and she was awesome. In fact in all the years of Idol Casey is the only contestant for whom I picked up the phone and voted. What she didn’t mention last night was that she won Australian Idol. I don’t know why she didn’t expressly point it out, but she beat Anthony Callea (our neighbour at the time) and took the top honors. She was then unceremoniously dumped by the label after they contractually required one album had had its run. And if we’re being honest, like fellow Idol winner, Kate Dearaugo, was dumped because she didn’t fit the cookie cutter “pretty girl” that the industry expects our female artists to be. Talent be damned. Casey has a big, beautiful voice and it’s sad it has remained mostly silent over the past 8 years.

She played a good set that included her idol winner’s track “Listen with Your Heart” and also a favourite from her “For You” album, “What’s Going On”. With these she included other tunes including Mamma Cass’s “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” and Hairspray’s “I Know Where I’ve Been”. I was good seeing Casey Donovan, back on stage and looking happy performing.

After a very brief break it was Dan Sultan’s turn to shine. While he humbly decried his having to follow an artist like Casey Donovan, he was clearly the one the crowd came to see. I’d never seen Dan perform, nor am I previously familiar with any of his work, but I was standing in a mainly empty area, with David, Marie, Sue and Dee, until Dan graced the stage. Then we were suddenly in a crowd.

He’s a great performer, and his work is very well mainstream, not sure why it doesn’t get more airplay on commercial radio stations, maybe they do tend to steer too much away from our indigenous artists. David noted Dan’s performance style was very reminiscent of that of John Mellencamp and I tend to agree. Dan’s songs and stage presence would not be out of place on a Mellencamp stage.

It was a great night, I took a bunch of photos, I think some of them turned out alright.

Casey Donovan

Dan Sultan

The queen of pop, Madonna, has returned with her first track from “MDNA”: “Give Me All Your Luvin’”.

On first listen I didn’t love it, granted I’m sitting in a darkened room at 5.30am with the speakers low for fear of waking the rest of the sleeping household, but it took a couple of listens to get it into my head and now it’s firmly fixed there.

We could have done without yet another injection of Nicki Minaj. She’s kind of over exposed at the moment having appeared on what seems like every new track for the past two years, she’s the all-people’s “featured” artist, but she always sounds the same. Nicki’s raps never sound any different and here in “Give Me All Your Luvin’” she sounds out of place. M.I.A.’s softer rap fits a little better, but it’s still not required to make this song a hit.

All this song needs is air-play and it will be stuck in people’s brains like the pointy end of a sharp javelin.

The direction of the video clip has clearly been influenced by Madonna’s upcoming appearance at the Superbowl where she’ll perform as half-time entertainment. “Give Me All Your Luvin’” is the headline track for her set, which is rumoured to also include some older favourites like “Ray of Light”, “Music” and “Vogue”. While “Celebration” isn’t confirmed, it’s believed it will have a presence throughout the set as a mixer track.

For now though, enjoy “Give Me All Your Luvin’”. If you’re lucky enough to have access to the US iTunes Store, you can pre-order Madonna’s “MDNA”, due to hit March 3, 2012, for $9.99 which includes three bonus tracks, one of which is an iTunes Exclusive track. Purchasing the pre-order will see the single “Give Me All Your Luvin’” downloaded immediately, with the rest of the album to follow on official release.

Yesterday was my birthday. I took the day off work and did a whole lot of nothing. Well I did errands and made my own birthday cake.

The cake was a raw carrot cake, no cooking, no flour, no milk or eggs, 100% vegan. It worked and it tastes like carrot cake, but the textures are all wrong. Because of the messed up textures it didn’t quite sit right with my past experience. I guess if I end up going raw for part of my diet there are a few aspects of it that will take some getting used to. Either way, it was a good experiment. There’s already a few modifications I’d make to the recipe to make it smoother and more consistent with a traditional carrot cake.

In the lead up to my birthday I always have a bit of a melt down, I’m getting older, but I don’t ever feel like it. I wonder if this is what it is like for my parents. I know that in the past they have told us to stop getting older because it was making the feel old. I don’t have kids to remind me of that everyday, but I am often blown away by the fact that I have a nephew turning 15 this year and even that David and I have been together for 15 years.

Time is slipping away. It is something I think about often. Perhaps I obsess about time and yet I don’t really have much of a concept of time. I’m crap at remembering when things happen, I remember details, just not when.

And I don’t want to grow up, ever, there are times I don’t feel like a full-fledged adult.

So yeah, I’m 38 now and all I can think about is the one line in a Prince song “The day that we stop counting, we’ll live as long as a tree.” Maybe it will happen, if I, and everyone around me, stops counting.

Stop counting with me.

As we did last year, Australia Day 2011, to celebrate Australia Day we head down to the Geelong foreshore with our friend Kathryn for a day of photos and fun.

First though was a quick stop at the Wyndham Cache for breakfast. We had lunch there last Sunday and have to say our second visit wasn’t as great. Clearly they weren’t prepared for the crowds of the public holiday and the horse show that was happening just up the road. Only two front of house staff were on, pretty sure the owner and his wife, and two kitchen staff. The kitchen kept up better than the front of house and after a bit of a wait to place our order or breakfasts arrived. I had French toast, which after ordering seemed a little wrong on Australia Day.

When we got to Geelong there was a slight hitch. Some boofhead (read “I”) forgot my camera and left it sitting on the kitchen table at home. Thankfully Kathryn was travelling with all three of her camera bodies that day; a Nikon, a Canon and a Konica/Minolta. Kathryn was going to let me borrow one of her bodies for the day, as they’d most likely just be sitting in the boot.

I think, however, that both David and Kathryn could tell I was a little miffed that I wouldn’t have my own camera and David suggested we go home and get it. Kathryn opted to stay and start visiting the festivities while David and I made the hour-long round trip back home to get my camera.

On our return, now much happier with my own baby in my hands, we set about exploring the foreshore. It was set up much the same as last year. From where we parked, on top of the hill, it was a short walk to the skate park where the “grungy” bands were playing, then past the pier, over to the first part where food stalls were set up and the main stage was in place. On the main stage our new Australians were being sworn in as little Aussies, with this year’s group including a gentleman of 88 who has lived in Australia for over 60 years but this year was the oldest person in Australia becoming a new Aussie on Australia day 2012.

Further along was another park with another stage of performers, followed by the Giant Sky Wheel (just past the marina) and the beach volley ball beside that. Across from these were yet more stalls.

We took a bunch of photos at the volley ball and moved on down to the far end, to the Eastern Beach Swimming Enclosure, where the kids (young and old) dive from the diving boards and fall, sometimes flailing wildly, from the high platform. These kids are quite often fun to watch for ages. They have so much fun bouncing around and trying new tricks.

One little girl was by far the highlight of the day. When it was her turn, she’d walk out to the edge of the diving board, look down, think about it, look back at her brother (who was waiting next in line) and then back at the water. Then she’d wander back off the board, too scared to jump and back to the end of the line. This went on about seven times before, on the eight, her brother went out on the board with her and stood with her while she did her “look and consider” routine. This time though her brother must have offered her comfort because she was suddenly crouching down and then launching herself off the edge of the board and into the water. Had it been one of my siblings I’m sure we would have pushed them off before the third time through. But her brother, and all those waiting in line, were very patient with her.

Of course once the first jump was out of the way there was no stopping her.

We had lunch at one of the stalls, I opted for a calamari and prawn basket while David and Kathryn had baked spuds. We also indulged in dagwood dogs, soft serve ice-cream and fairy floss, all right when I say “we” I probably mean just me. But it was a celebration so it’s all right for a little indulgence to occur.

While we had at first considered hanging around for the fireworks display later in the night we were all a little worn out form the sun and walking around and around. We instead opted for a ride on The Giant Sky Wheel, then home. On the way home we passed by Werribee South water front where they had just started celebrations, though I’m sure most of the people had been there all day, and it was packed. They were going to have fireworks there too, but we still decided it best to call it a day.

In all it was a fun day, we always have a good day when we’re out taking photos. I think we came back with a nice collection. Many of which probably won’t see the light of day. But here’s a few of my favourites from the day. You can see more in my Flickr set: Australia Day 2012.

At least I hope it is. Just watched the pilot for “SMASH”. I love it.

I want to see more and more and more.

I would have thought this would be a great way to actually build a musical over a season of a TV show, but it doesn’t look like that’s how it’s going to go. It looks like, from the extended season preview show at the end, that the seasons pretty much complete.

The quality of this is a bit crap, and they really missed the boat on using online to help the show grow. This is clearly a rip someone has made from their DVR. Sad the studio hasn’t embraced the Internet.

So I guess I’m just a bit of a musical theatre queen at heart. I can’t wait for more of the show.

Get on over to The Daily Dalek and have a laugh at the (currently) over 100 awesome comics and a little more Doctor Who humour thrown in.

We created the “Australian Open 2012 Official Program for iPad” for Tennis Australia. It’s an iPad app that includes the full print program in two versions, either a PDF View showing it exactly as it appears in the printed magazine or a story version with the PDF’s text inline and much easier to read on the device.

In addition to this we’ve included a news feed and live scores so you’ll be able to see the action real-time in app/

And as you can see from below, we’ve gone world-wide. I’m not certain what they’re all saying but it it’s anything like the feedback we’ve received so far from other english speaking folk, it’s all good.

明日からテニス４大大会のオーストラリアOPが始まるので、『Australian OPEN 2012 app for iPad』ダウンロードしました。錦織圭選手の活躍を楽しみにしています。

Mr.SolutionMan

 لمستخدمي الآيباد والآيفون ، تطبيق بطولة استراليا المفتوحة 2012 الان متاح على الابل ستور google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&…

Noura Al-Omair

This would have to be our biggest app to date. We’re pretty proud of how it works. It was conceived by us and built in collaboration with another team of developers quite quickly over the Christmas break.

Geoff, the boss, tweeted about it.

Can’t get to the OzOpen? You can still get the official program free on the iPad, a product of @slatterymedia. iTunes:bit.ly/AOP2012

Geoff Slattery