This journal, while boring, is friends only. But if you comment, I'll add you. I'm sure we'll be the best of friends. :D

Howdie folks,
My beautiful iMac (Liz) recently suffered an unfortunate accident involving a parent and a bunch of water...
Needless to say, I'm now getting a new iMac.
The problem is, what to name her? Traditionally, Apple devices in this house (with a few exceptions) are named after strong female characters from shows/movies we've watched or books we've read. We don't name stuff after actual people, that would be creepy

Current ideas for names are: ( names and photos under the cut )

Because she will be a super powerful computer with a 2tb HD, I'm going for an HBIC kinda name. So.. Any suggestions? There will be a poll in the next couple of weeks. Replacement Liz will take around 2 weeks to get here, so there's time.


Edited to say: I would prefer if the character doesn't have anything particularly (or unusually) unpleasant happen to them, the kind of thing that would stay bad. I know it's a silly superstition, but I named my phone after Sierra (kidnap victim who stayed kidnapped) who then got stolen. My laptop is named after Remy Hadley (13 from House, has Huntington's disease) and then she got progressively more and more broken. So yeah...

“Proper lady boot camp” sounds like a logical impossibility, but that’s just what Ladette to Lady tries to be. This season starts off with eight troublesome Australian women, who are then yelled at and browbeaten into wearing twinsets and preparing canapes for English ‘gentlemen’ by a group of shrill Englishwomen pretending to be ladies themselves. As each episode concludes the teachers ask the most difficult student to leave. At the end of the season they celebrate their success of mildly reforming the most compliant student.

Hey folks,
I love Dollhouse, you should too. Seriously. It's awesome. A Joss Whedon show, with Eliza Dushku and writing by Maurissa Tancharoen. It's both a fascinating study of people smuggling and the ethics of having programmable people and whether such things could ever possibly be good, and an awesome action show with hot people, doing hot things while being hot.
Clearly this is a show that MUST be on TV that everyone should watch, right?
Well Fox is kinda sucking with the promoting it and the ratings aren't really going so well in the states, so it looks like it might be going off the air after next week. I can't begin to tell you in how many ways that will suck.
Here is where the pleading begins, if you live in the US and have one of those fancy ratings boxes, PLEASE WATCH DOLLHOUSE. If you live in the US and don't have a ratings box thing: DVR IT! Watch it on TiVo! Download it from iTunes or Amazon.com. Or watch it on Hulu or Fox On Demand. Basically any legal way that contributes to ratings. So watching it live without a ratings box doesn't count, downloading it illegally doesn't count. Also, please tell your friends to do the same.
If you don't live in the US, you can help too: if you have an IP blocker, or a way of tricking your computer into thinking that you're in the US, watch it on Hulu or Fox On Demand. Or, buy a US iTunes card on eBay and download the season 2 eps from the US iTunes. Or buy the season 1 DVD set from Amazon.com
You can also help by visiting the Dollhouse imdb page, which will increase the show's MovieMeter rating:
If you have an imdb Pro account, follow this link: http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt1135300/maindetails
Or if you don't, try this one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135300/

And if you could please post about it on your journal so other people can see this, that would be awesome!
Please? This show is amazing and important and it can't stop now!

For more info on how to help Dollhouse, look here: http://community.livejournal.com/blank_dolls/317416.html
and here: http://community.livejournal.com/blank_dolls/315115.html

Hey folks, How about a game? The first task of the game, is to come up with a better name than 'The opposite album game!' With or without and exclamation mark, it blows.
The rules of the game are this:
Someone posts the title and artist and track listing of an album, but everything is opposite.
For example, Andi did this one of The Con by Tegan and Sara:
Pro! - Tom and Sebastian
You are single = I Was Married
Very stressful over there = Relief Next To Me
Pro! = The Con
Forks are resistant = Knife Going In
I’m 5 months in the future! = Are You Ten Years Ago
You never escaped my foot = Back In Your Head
Skip some trains = Hop A Plane
Mud! Mud! = Soil, Soil
Poor water on your grave = Burn Your Life Down
Twenty = Nineteen
Airial map = Floorplan
Similar to Z and F = Like O, Like H
Slow down light = Dark Come Soon
Start it up! = Call It Off.

You can make it as hard or as easy as you like


Here are some to get you started (I'll comment with more as needed):
1. Dull - Protecting Innocence
No Adornment
Drought
Average People
Down To Earth Girl
Hug Me
Damn Know It All
Unmarked Can
Unnoticed Dropouts
I Need It
Fakers
Mary's Silence
Brown Cows

2. Not Contemplating Anything - Pink Queen
Calm Skin Outside The House
Death Isn't What It Used To Be
Cheerful Scandinavian
Leave Me For Dead
Toronto
Closed Eyes
A Tiny Amount For Lots
Wasting Time In A Warm Thigh
Inches Of Carbon Dioxide
You All Suck

3. Stay Calm - Consort
While The Glass Is Half Full, It's Totally About To Crack
Nope, Mine
Bugger
Happy Holidays
Now That It's Sunny
Keep It Frozen
Failure
Actually I Don't Like You/Actually I Don't Like You/Actually I Don't Like You
I'm Fixed
Free Range!
Died For Nothing
Loose


More to Come! Comments are screened to add funness and challenge, so post games and answers in separate comments.

So, as you folks know, I've had a lot of troubles with Remy lately. First her logic board failed and then her hard drive needed to be replaced. In that past I haven't had any problems with my Macs, except for my iMac who arrived DOA and they just sent me out a new one, but Remy has just been screwed.
Normally I am not at all superstitious. I name my computers and stuff just to tell them apart (well... I also kinda think of my computers as people... But that would make me sound crazy if I actually admitted it). But it would seem that my computers kinda take on the personalities of the characters they're named after:
Willow (Buffy) is super smart, but a little slow.
Fred (Angel) is super dooper smart and flies under the radar.
Rory (Gilmore Girls) isn't quite as smart and occasionally makes some bad decisions, but is small, cute and means well.
Elizabeth (Pride and Prejudice) is uber smart and headstrong and pretty
Remy (House), while smart and beautiful, has Huntington's and is slowly dying.

Since Remy has now essentially had all her insides replaced, she's not really Remy anymore. So should I rename her?
Current favourite is Adelle, after the head of the Dollhouse. My new phone is called Sierra (after one of the dolls) and Adelle is smart, sleek, in control and decides whether to program the dolls. She would be called Addy for short which is a nod to Addy from Grey's Anatomy who is also super hot and smart.

Here is what she looks like:
She's 15 inches, has 4gbs of RAM, 2.53GHz processor, a 320gb hard drive and she has two graphics cards, both NVIDIA GeForce, one 9400, the other 9600GT. Basically: She's silver, shiny, fast and pretty.
The name has to be after a character I respect, who is female and preferably attractive.

So yeah, what do you guys think?

Poll #1422301 Remy just isn't Remy anymore.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

Should I rename Remy?

Poll #1407649 Matthew Hamilton TOTALLY looks like Alexis Denisof
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

Do you think Matthew Hamilton looks like Alexis Denisof?

( Pictures of both guys under the cut )

Today sucked. Yesterday started out crap and ended up AWESOME.
So to honor them, I'm going memetastic.
I will start with this one I stole from a bunch of folks, then I'll find another one and maybe edit this later.

Comment on this entry, and I will:
1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

I have a labret. As a kid I always wanted one. Then, forever ago, my ex talked me into getting it to mark our 3 month anniversary... Which sucked... But is kinda irrelevant. Because I loved my labret, I love playing with it when I'm thinking or stressed, I like the way it looks. All of it is wonderful.
Except it's now starting to bug me. the pointy little inside my mouth bit stabs my gums when I get kissed, it scrapes against my teeth sometimes, I get ulcers...
It's starting to feel like it's not worth it. But I'm not sure.. I still love it, but it's lost a lot of it's appeal.. But I'm indecisive and also a little worried about the hole/scar it will leave, so could you guys help me out?

Poll #1380147 Should I take out my labret.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

Really? Should I?

( Photo of me with and without the labret live below the cut. )

I made some icons, I like them. Thus they get posted. I think I could have made them better... But I'm still learning, so yeah. If you have tips, please give them.

[4] Still: Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway (Joanne/Maureen, Tracie Thoms & Eden Espinosa)
[3] Animated: Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway (Joanne/Maureen, Tracie Thoms & Eden Espinosa)
[2] Animated: Australian Wicked (Glinda/Elphaba, Lucy Durack & Amanda Harrison)
[3] Animated: LA Wicked, Ugly Betty (Glinda/Elphaba, Megan Hilty & Eden Espinosa)
[3] Animated: Penny McNamee



If you use, please comment and credit! Thanks.

( Follow the default link text colour cut )

I'll make a proper post about the dinner party last night and the birthday present we gave Penny McNamee later. But for now I must rant in a geeky manner.

What the hell is with the new iPod Shuffles? I was going to upgrade from my tiny, red 2GB Shuffle (which I got on a pilgrimage to the Sydney Apple store last year) because I wanted to put more music on there, so I've been waiting for this for a while.
These were the expectations I had:
1. Smaller in size, larger in storage.
2. Bigger range of nice colours.
3. Better buttons.
4. MUCH better battery life.
5. Same price or better.

They delivered on 1 and I have yet to be able to test for 4. But WHAT THE HELL is with the lack of buttons?! Sure, you can use the buttons on the headphones it comes with, but I spent a large amount of money on SuperAwesomeAmazing headphones so I could listen to my music in better quality than is afforded by the kinda adequate headphones in iPod boxes. Also, some people find ear buds uncomfortable, forcing folks to use them so they can operate the player seems counterproductive. I think we could have lived with it being a couple of millimeters thicker so we could have the buttons back, it wasn't like the old model was washing machine friendly, why squish out a AA battery and call it improved?
Also the colours? Silver and a weird salt and pepper coal colour? The iPod Touch, iPhone, iPod Classic and all the Macs and other premium Apple products are the ones that come in the classy silver/white/black colours. The iPod Nano and the iPod Shuffle are the fun, low end Apple items, they're comparatively cheap and they come in bright happy colours. They're the exciting alternatives that do only what they have to. Jacking up the price of the Shuffle from a base of $50 to $129, making it only come in boring colours and getting it to speak 14 languages is an interesting and possibly a bad move for Apple, especially in the middle of a recession.

On the upside, this release has saved me from buying a new one. Bring back Steve Jobs!
( A photo and a link to more photos, under the cut: )

Also, in other exciting Apple news, iPhone OS 3.0 is being announced on Tuesday night, it's gonna be awesome! I'm hoping for copy and paste, stereo bluetooth and a couple of other features that all other reasonable smart phones already have. SMS forwarding would be nice too. Dream things would be an OSX style Dashboard and MobileMe 'Back To My Mac' support.
This announcement will probably also give clues to what's going to be in the 3rd generation iPhone, rumored to be announced in June (which, conveniently enough is when Dad's phone contract runs out... interesting... Hehehe, one day he'll get a new phone of his very own, til then he will continue to enjoy my fancy cast offs, assuming his ye olde N70 survives til then. Hopefully he'll know how to use this one... Although Mum adapted to the iPhone very quickly. It's the only gadget she knows how to use without having to look at system cards.)
However this year I don't think I'll line up for the new one. I got over lining up for Apple stuff after the Chadstone Apple store opening. (Although it was cool being first).

But I shall save the rest of that rant til Wednesday. Dinner and Penny update soooon.

I'm really getting into this whole YouTube thing, and thus I have done something I know I will regret. In 2006 I made a REALLY REALLY AWFUL Buffy fan movie for media class. In this film everyone in Sunnydale gets turned into action figures. My original plan was to film it in many locations at my house and have all the characters voiced by nice people in a nice room so it would sound and look good.
Then I forgot about it until the due date and I ended up having to cobble it together in my flat with stuff I found in a box of old doll house stuff we were going to give to charity. I also hadn't had a chance to get all the action figures I needed or record everyone properly. Or do the final script edit. Really it's a terrible terrible piece of crap, but it might be so bad it's funny and really, someone should laugh at it.
So with that disclaimer, I give you: Buffy season 8, ep 6: Life in Plastic:

I have no words. None. Check out this trailer: http://www.youandithemovie.com/index.html
Four words sum up this movie well: Misha Barton. Abattoir. t.a.t.u.
I cannot wait to see it, it will be the perfect addition to MMFest!

Lindsay, my best friend, has made me new shoes (because the last ones were for tiny footed people... Like Andi).
And they are awesome. Because the photos are FRACKING HUGE (but awesomely so) I have put them behind a cut, because your flist might die from the awesome overdose (I really like these shoes).
( Have some photos: )
For more photos of the sides (which are awesome) go here: http://gallery.me.com/alicepire#100059 :D

...Just because I know these exist: http://www.swordcane.com/burger_swords_home.htm

I WON THE WICKED SUMMER SAMPLEING PROMOTION!!!!!!!!!! It was this SMS comp thingy that I entered hoping for one of the runners up prizes.
What I got was so much better! FIRST PRIZE is as follows (taken from the terms and conditions):
The first valid entry drawn will win one night’s twin share accommodation at Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, 2 x 'A' Reserve tickets to WICKED, Meet and Greet with the WICKED cast and a Backstage Tour. Total prize value is $600.
Yeah. I have that. Suddenly I feel so much less disappointed that I lost the lottery this morning (I lost to Amanda AND Stewart. Amanda's kid is wayy too cute).

*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE* They say that the prize will be a Friday in April. I look forward to it.

Hey folks,
I've decided to start trying to make icons and stuff again, because my PC recently got fixed (I never got around to learning how on my Macs... One day I will though, because dear god do I hate Windows).
So while I try to find some more stuff to av and try to remember how I used to do this, I thought I might post up some stuff that I made ages ago.



( a wallpaper and an animated banner after the cut. All Imagine Me & You. )

Just don't forget to credit and no hotlinking and all that usual stuff

EDITED: Because apparently my .mac account doesn't like gifs. grr.

PEOPLE OF OZ! DO NOT EVER ENTER A CONTRACT WITH TELSTRA!
You may remember my having issues with them last week, which we resolved by being put on a higher plan. I was told that this higher plan, like the plan I was already on, was capped and when I reached 60gbs, I'd go down to dial-up speeds. Last night I spent an hour on hold to find out that I was 5gbs under the limit and I stopped all downloads.
Today I called iPrimus and started moving over to one of their plans. I called Telstra today to double check how much it would cost to get out of contract Lucky I did because otherwise I wouldn't have found out I was more than 10gbs over and being charged 15cents for every megabyte. so right now I'm looking at well over $1500 thanks to the gross incompetence of a Telstra phone monkey. I have gotten the person I'm talking to now to put notes on the account so I can hopefully fight this.
Wow how much do I feel like suing? I am beyond angry
Right now I'm on hold to their bundle department. Then I will be on hold to their complaints department. I hate their goddam patriotic crap that they play over and over again on hold. I am Australian - the rock version is not making me feel any better since I have been listening to it on a loop for 20 fucking minutes. I just know that whoever designed their hold music was probably at the cronulla riots and is one of those arseholes who go around with Australian flags on their car.
I might not be around as much, unless my phone decides to make friends with LJ again, since I'm now turning off my modem. This means Andi won't be around as much either.
Bye guys. Avoid Telstra.

(Also, I don't think the lion properly embodies angry, if anyone knows of a Wicked mood theme that I can use, that would cheer me up.)

Also, I finally talked to a person and they're being very nice to me and it looks like everything is going to be OK. Maybe I won't have to turn my modem off after all, which is good. I just have so much work I have to do today.

Today I got the Dr Horrible DVD. OH MY FRACKING GEEKY GOD IT IS AWESOME!! The behind the scenes stuff was great, but the sing-a-long commentary!!! It is almost more awesome than Hush! Certainly more awesome than any episode of Buffy season 5.
The best songs were 'All About Us' and 'Nobody's Asian In The Movies' and the last song at the end making fun of Steve's lisp gets a special mention.
Go to http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001M5UDGS?ie=UTF8&tag=drhorr-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001M5UDGS and BUY IT NOW!! IT IS FULL OF JOSSY AWESOME GOODNESS!!

I have lost my glasses. I don't know how I lost them. I put them down with my phone to have a nap, 20 minutes later they're gone. I can find my phone and Andi has helped me look EVERYWHERE in the flat and they're not there. The door was locked so they couldn't have gone anywhere, I haven't sleep walked anywhere in a long time. Dammit I have so much work to do and I can't read (hence the typos in this post). I'm not sure why I'm posting about this, but it seems like the only thing I can do other than look some more (I'm trying to trick them into thinking I've given up, then, when the itme is right, I'll strike. Kinda like trying to catch the toys in Toy Story.)
In other news, last night Andi and I made amazing pasta. I had a dream about this pasta like a month ago, we had to use chicken instead of scollops, but it was just as amazing as I thought it would be. Is it a sign of being overly domestic when you start dreaming up recipes?
Well, I'll go back to looking now. Though I'm not sure where else to look. WE've covered the fridge, the freezer, under both couches, under the bed, in Andi's stuff, in the VCR, my my laptop bag, in the toaster, the oven, all the cupboards... blerg.

--------------------EDIT------------------
I found them!!! It took two hours and I don't know how they got there, but they were having off the other side (wall side) of the bed. Which is strange because I wasn't in bed and I don't do anything with Andi's side of the bed anyway. But YAY! Work, here I come!
---------------EDIT EDIT-----------------
Whoa. Last night I downloaded Kerry Ellis Wicked Rock EP... Seriously? Granted it's better than Idina Menzel's Defying Gravity dance remixes.. But still.. Her Rock DG is pretty good, kinda 80's and pretty funny, but listenable. The rock ballad I'm not that girl though.. ouch.