Beating the Buffet

New Scientist

A Chinese software engineer has managed to beat the "one bowl, one visit" rule at many buffets, by using architectural principles to stack enormous amounts of food into a tower. He uses carrot sticks to build a framework and then solid walls of cucumber around the outside. This leaves the inside of the tower free to be filled with anything that takes your fancy.

This technique can reach up to 1 metre into the air.

Canine Confrontation

A furry stand-off between the farmer's vicious creature on the left, and our little doggy.

Horned Cow

Staying in Nannup last week, this was my neighbour.

My Top Ten Films of 2011

Having seen 105 films in cinemas last year, I have a long list of contenders for my favourite ten. Whittling them down to the finalists is tricky, but here we go.

10. Hanna - Siaorse Ronan is a young assassin on the run

9. X-Men First Class - the best superhero story of the year

8. No Strings Attached - romantic comedy with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kucher

7. Sucker Punch - amazing visuals

6. Source Code - mind-twisting science fiction storyline

5. True Grit - Coen Brothers western

4. Melancholia - the opening slow-mo sequence is the most memorable four minutes of my entire year

3. Sarah's Key - such a poignant story of the second world war

2. Midnight in Paris - I love both Paris and midnight.

1. Black Swan - saw this twice.

Note that none of the above are 3-D. Although several blockbusters in the extra dimension were moderately enjoyable at the time, they didn't make a lasting impression on me.

What Does Merry Christmas Mean?

How many people have personally wished you a Merry Christmas this year? Does each additional wish put pressure on you to enjoy the day more? Or does it increase your excitement and anticipation? Now that it's Boxing Day, we can analyse this in retrospect.

And how about those tardy cards that arrive a few days after the big day in the glut of mail. Do the words have any effect now that the day has passed? Or are they merely decorated pieces of cardboard?

In my mind, the words contribute marginally to my warm fuzzy glow of festive cheer, no matter how many times  I hear or read them. To understand this better, realise that instead of a fuel guage in most of our minds is a Christmas guage that ranges from empty to full depending on the time of year. And each card received, each greeting, each Christmas special on tv sends the needle further towards full. 

Cards also have a science fiction element for me - they trigger a visualisation of the person who sent it, like a hologram: I picture them sitting down and writing amid a stack of other cards.

Noël Van Winkle

Eeeks, I've just awoken after sleeping solidly for three straight days and nights and it's only 30 minutes to Christmas ! My shopping for gifts is somewhat restricted at this time of night - options are sausage rolls and corn chips from the petrol station down the road, or flowers from the neighbour's garden. I might repackage up my old video recorder and pass it on to an elderly relative - they won't notice its vintage. And there's a spare cat wandering around the corridor near me as I type - if only he can be tempted into a large box.

Next year I'll make sure not to contract a nasty bug from a buffet. It really ruined my 7th to the 11th days of Christmas this year.

Tricks of the Buffet

Lunching at a pricey buffet today, my mind was drawn towards getting the most value from the experience. Here are some thoughts.

Tricky with soup

1. The restaurant supplied dainty little scissor tongs (left) to handle the food. They were so small and delicate and fiddly that a surgeon would have had trouble using them. They didn't grip well and they had the desired effect of frustrating people so much that they abandoned any thoughts of filling their plates. My solution - bring a heavy duty tool from the garden. You'll be loading up your plate in seconds.

2. Go for desserts first. When the restaurant opens, the dessert station is virgin territory. Get yourself over there before its despoiled by the stampede and take your pick.

3. Order a la carte (much cheaper) but then "borrow" food from other people. The wait staff can't keep track of any mince pies that may be passed illicitly under the table.

Arachnoblurrier

You might suspect this shot is out of focus. I'd say no, there's defiinitely something in focus, you just have to hunt for it. In any case, can you blame me for not wanting to hang around this backyard monster too long?

Tilt Shifting for Dummies

Taking tilt shift photos is so simple when your camera has the function built-in. When I tried it three years ago with my box brownie it took months of painstaking work to achieve the effect, working with individual pixels using a pair of tweezers. Anyhow, here's another shot from the Seattle Space Needle.

I took some photos from the Seattle Space Pin over the road, but it's only three metres above the ground - hardly worth the $0.15 admission charge.

Back to Seattle

The view from the Space Needle in Seattle.

Fluoro Orange

Why on earth did they paint the tower at a local university such a striking fluoro orange? What were they thinking?

Unexpected Sky Liquids

In the middle of the huge downpour on Monday night, my only aim was to photograph falling raindrops. Here are seven. They must have been heavy, judging by the exploding buckets of water.

Lost Dr Who Episodes Discovered, But My Tapes Still Missing

A scene from my 12th birthday party. Bod is at the rear.

With the astounding news that two long lost episodes of Dr Who from the 1960s have been discovered, I must sadly report that home videos from the early 1980s of my family's birthday parties are still lost. In tragic circumstances in the late 1980s, a shortage of video tapes in the lounge room led to certain peoples (who shall remain anonymous) being forced to tape over our priceless footage.

Despite remaining ever vigilant, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that we will ever see those scenes again, especially since the number of working video recorders in the extended family has declined to one, and more importantly, we have not discovered yet how to unerase video tape, despite numerous emails to the FBI.

Luna is Eclipsed

The moon was swallowed up by the earth's shadow last night, and even more eerily, turned a shade of orange at the peak of the spectacle. Your intrepid blogger was there all evening, braving the mild and clement conditions in the pursuit of astrophotography. That didn't work out, so here are some snaps I took.

7:30pm - the moon started the evening looking nomally moonish.

9:00 pm - the first chunk has been bitten

9:45pm - werewolves are by now ripping their shirts off

10.10pm - it's a little nippy, so shirts are back on again by now

CHOGM - Gone but not Forgotten

Just when the excitement of Perth's recent CHOGM  was dying down, a commemorative coin landed in my pocket.

This is such a collector's item, its face value of $1 is dwarfed by its street value of $1.00001 among numismatic aficionados.

Note the 17 sheets of toilet paper encircling the globe in a symbolic joining of the bottoms of the world.

Mediaeval Stained Building

Another from the Freo Festival.

Kingly Wall

Another gorgeous scene from the Freo Festival. The image was animated and even more magical in person.

Hidden Veggies

For the reluctant vegetarian, this is the perfect pasta sauce. I spotted it in my local supermarket on the weekend.

There's a complementary range of sauces called Hidden Meat targeted at people  trying to undermine militant vegetarians in their own family.

Freo Festival - Illuminated Buildings

The patterns changed every few seconds.

More from the Fremantle Ferris Wheel

One of the seven wonders of the Southern Hemisphere.

Fremantle Lights

As part of the Fremantle Festival, animated projections on various buildings appeared on the weekend. These two sailor boys were bouncing around merrily on the Bar Orient.

Sunset over Fremantle Harbour

This view is from the ferris wheel. Note the misleading "Perth" sign.

The Moreton Bay Fig

Here's a view from another angle. I'd like one of these in my lounge room, but I'd have to remove the ceiling. Note the giant baubles; so large they'd flatten an elephant. Every day, one of them drops to the ground and cracks open, with hundreds of surprise presents spilling out . A stampede of children gather at much booty as they can and everyone is happy, unless it's one of the slime baubles, full of goop and fish heads.

Christmas Lights are Lit

Seen in Fremantle last night, an aviator (or is it James Dean?) taking an interest in the newly turned-on Christmas lights on the High Street.

Male Pattern Strangeness

Male Pattern Strangeness can be treated with ointment.

But don't wait long, it may be too late.