Archive for the ‘personal’ Category
Friday, May 8th, 2009
I’ve just recently moved out of the warehouse, after creating a space and living there for nearly a year. It was a colourful and interesting place (some recent pictures on flickr), and it gave me an interesting perspective on spaces. For example – and this may sound very odd – it’s very difficult to adjust to the concept of walls. My “room” in the warehouse didn’t even have a real floor, so being encased in a bunch of solid white walls is extremely claustrophobic.
Internal walls seems so arbitrary. (Here I imagine is importance in trusting the architect, who uses their Great Wisdom to choose the appropriate sizes and locations of walls) I can see sound-proofing could be seen as an important function, but I can say that while living with eleven other people I never had a problem – I slept with earplugs. Being able to reconfigure rooms is so exhilarating and liberating. Are walls worth it? Maybe I’m missing something. What’s your experience of walls, and why do you need them?
Tags: Architect, Flickr, Interesting Place, Internal Walls, Missing Something, Perspective, Sound Proofing, White Walls, Wisdom
Posted in personal, thoughts | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
If you don’t care how far I managed to ride, then here’s a picture of a poodle and a unicycle. I tried to find a picture of a poodle on a unicycle, but even the Internet disappoints sometimes.
Otherwise read on for gruelling cycle trek.
(more…)
Tags: Bike Ride, Botany Bay, Botany Rd, Chips, Cycle Trek, Factories, Fish, Friendly Shop, Handy Restaurant, La Perouse, Lookout, Map, Mascot, Mission Impossible, Mission Impossible 2, Poodle, Trucks, Unicycle
Posted in personal | No Comments »
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
Woo. Last night I managed to break my long D70S drought. I hacked together an effective monopod using a piece of bamboo, and some brackets, nuts and bolts from the Photo egg – stood back to admire my handiwork – and then tromped around Newtown and St.Peters taking steadier-than-usual pictures of things. I tend to venture around at night, so having a steady platform is important for nice long exposures. (Also, you get to feel like some kind of druid carrying a staff around.)
Today I headed of to the Nunnery bike co-op to finally finally get a back brake. I’m sure we can all agree on the advantages of a backup brake, that combined with the front can actually stop the combined momentum of a rider and bike at the bottom of a hill.
Tags: Bamboo, Bike Brakes, Bike Co, Brackets, Diy, Drought, Druid, Egg, Exposures, Handiwork, Momentum, Monopod, Nuts And Bolts, Nuts Bolts, Photo, St Peters
Posted in personal | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
I had to get out of Newtown.
For those who haven’t experienced it, Newtown is a suburb full of interesting, beautiful people, cafés, and cheap restaurants. People say “You don’t need to leave Newtown”. It’s very easy to live entirely within Newtown, and still feel connected, especially as most of my friends now live within a few minutes from me. The problem is that Sydney is a coastal city, and its soul breathes through the beaches. I’ve been in Newtown for months, and until tonight hadn’t ventured to the ocean.
I made my escape – Beeline for the beach – on slightly-flat Richard Ashcroft from the Verve.
Blurry Coogee beach, and blurry Sydney CBD.
It was further than I thought: 21 kms.
View Larger Map
Tags: Beaches, Beautiful People, Beeline, Bike Ride, Cheap Restaurants, Coastal City, Coogee Beach, Few Minutes, Hadn, Map, Richard Ashcroft, Suburb, Sydney Cbd, Verve
Posted in personal | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Hayden recently gave me his old bike*, and I attempted to cycle it around Sydney. It’s was an old racing bike, with a very light frame, but also suicidally-placed gear levers and brakes. Combined with the foot-cages this bike made it impossible to cycle safely (IMHO).
Last Monday I visited the Nunnery free bike workshop (at the Redfern end of Newtown) and managed to carve off the old handlebars, replace them with straight maintain-bike ones, and move the brakes and gears. All for free: Fantastic! I’ve now got a very light bike, but with sensible controls. I’ve dubbed the bike “Mr Richard Ashcroft from the Verve”, as it’s all black, is very skinny, but has wide shoulders thanks to the straight bars. The bike now marches through the streets of Sydney a la Bittersweat Symphony, knocking old ladies and children over… maybe.
Needless to say, I was well chuffed.
Today, I managed to enthusiastically buy a bunch of cheap and heavy electronics from Reverse Garbage, with no transport other than Mr. Ashcroft. Necessity being the mother of invention; I managed to hook up the sweet trailer arrangement I’ve been wanting to make for years, all for less than $10!
* reports indicate it was a karma-swap for my old bike going missing while I was away.
Tags: Bike Workshop, Bittersweat, Brakes, Free Bike, Gears, Handlebars, Hayden, Karma, Last Monday, Levers, Light Frame, Mother Of Invention, Old Bike, Old Ladies, Reverse Garbage, Richard Ashcroft, Straight Bars, Streets Of Sydney, Verve, Wide Shoulders
Posted in personal | 4 Comments »
Subscribe to all content