A-Mac’s Half-Arsed Music Blog
When I was a kid I often wondered why my parents music collection seemed to stop a few years after I was born. Now that Buster Boy and the Troll Princess are with us I think I’m beginning to understand it. It’s not just about disposable income disappearing, although that doesn’t help, it’s about time.
The opportunity to sit down for an hour and listen to music is a luxury that simply unattainable for most parents, it certainly is for us. Luckily for me I have a friend with impeccable taste in music and the time to seek it out, however as he lives about five hours away it’s rare that I get the benefit of his insight. So it’s great that with very little nagging he’s agreed to start a music blog to help hopeless people like me hear new music and avoid the type of embarrassment that usually occurs at Hottest 100 time when you can’t identify a single song.
So make sure that you add his tumblr feed to your RSS reader.
He’s started off listing some of his top songs of the year, and there are some real gems there – go now and have a listen.
Grand Final 2009
Mrsdave supports the Cats.
I support the Saints.
There’s every chance that I’ll be in very deep trouble no matter who wins today.
I’ve decided to condition Mrsdave by showing her videos of Brendan Fevola to reinforce my credentials as a good husband, in the hope that I’ll be allowed in the house after the game is over.
Saints by 13
Who are you online?
I like permanence. Six years ago I bought my own domain primarily so I’d never have to change my email address ever again. I almost had separation anxiety when my employer gave me a mobile phone, meaning that I had to stop using my old number. We still have the same license plate number that I had when I got my first car 15 years ago. I don’t like it when I have to adapt. The internet has gone a long way to messing that up.
Grey Water Installation
At Ray’s request here is a more detailed look at how to install a grey water tank, Dave from Albury style.
Read more…
Grey Water
The lawn at the Dave from Albury Compound is one of the many things that had suffered from neglect over the years, but has been receiving plenty of attention of late. Last weekend I unboxed lawn seed, bought home a trailer load of sandy loam, and set about repairing the extensive bare patches in the front and back yard.
The problem that immediately sprang up was how to keep the seed damp while it germinated, seeing as how Albury is still on anti-lawn water restrictions. The obvious solution was to invest in a grey water setup, one of the myriad things that have been ‘on the list’ to do forever, but never materialised. Mrsdave sent me to Bunnings with the idea of one of those wheelie bin style tanks in mind, but things didn’t turn out quite as she’d expected.
The Beatles: Rockband
In short, it’s absolutely amazing.
This isn’t just a case of dropping Beatles tracks into Rockband, it is so much more. The visuals are absolutely stunning, there are some nice tweaks to the gameplay, and it really sets a new benchmark for this style of game.
If you love The Beatles and you’re not a gamer, this game is seriously good enough to turn you into one.
Cold, wet and happy.
Today, along with three other families from Albury Apex, we left the glorious sunshine which had finally made its way to the Dave from Albury compound and headed to Falls Creek. We’re not regular visitors to the snow, in fact this was the first time that Mrsdave has been since well before she fell pregnant with Buster Boy, and my only recreational visit was last year’s Apex trip when we took a group of African refugees to Mt Buffalo.
Buster Boy and the Troll Princess had been excitedly looking forward to the trip, Buster Boy because of his memories of last year’s trip, the Troll Princess because Dora rescued a snow princess once (actually it’s been dozens of times, DVD repetition is the bane of a parent’s life). We hired some gear in Mount Beauty and headed up the mountain, trying all of the usual distractions that you throw out when trying to avoid the kids feeling queasy on a windy road. As we passed the sign marking ten kilometres from the village I switched to ‘who can see the first snow?’ as I knew we were nearing the area where we’d start to see it on the road side.
Well, I thought I knew. Higher and higher we drove, with no sign of snow on the roadsides or in the nearby scrub. In fact we drove all the way into the village before we saw any real piles of snow anywhere. We made our way to the aptly named Windy Corner, where the toboggan slope is located, and braved the icy squalls and grey skies. To our delight, all of the kids took to the slope with gusto, although they were far less keen on dragging their sleds back up the hill.
After plenty of trips down the hill, including all of the Dads, and then Mums, racing each other (Mrsdave won, I disgraced our family) we retired to the nearby shelter for some lunch. It was great to be out of the wind and snow for a while, and there is something sublime about communal food.
We headed out again to build some snow men, but the entire enterprise soon devolved into a snowball fight. We didn’t have long though, as the wind picked up even further, chasing us back to our cars. After a relaxing drive back down the mountain we reconvened at the Dederang Pub for a few quiet ales before going our separate ways. All in all, a fantastic day, made even better by sharing the experience with good friends.
