Cara's Blog

How to make a chicken fall asleep

2007-07-01T17:50:00.000+10:00

While JB and I went up north to Rockhampton/Yepoon for a friends wedding this weekend, we happened to find a stray chicken on the side of the road! A chicken! Of all the stray animals you could find on the side of a road in the middle of no-where ... a freakin chicken. So rather than letting it become a dingo's next meal, JB jumped out of the car and easily caught it. I wrapped it up in a rag and gave it a cuddle as we drove it back to his grandparent's house. We made a little nest and gave her some food and water and prepared an old bird aviary which became her temporary chicken coop.

I really fell in love with this gorgeous little chicken, so we gave her a name - Margaret. We had a playful afternoon just hanging out on the grass. With Margaret pecking around chasing bugs. My mum had shown me how she can get chickens to go to sleep upside down, if they're really relaxed ... here's how to do it:

» How to make a chicken fall asleep

Thankfully JB's grandmother knows a lady who has chickens and is willing to take good care of Margaret.

wall art

2007-06-21T21:34:00.000+10:00

For a while now I've wanted to bring in something inspiring and creative to the unit I purchased last year. I'm not particularly skilled with a paintbrush, well, it's not an avenue I have explored a great deal. I do however love design and want to be able to some how transfer a design that I can create on my computer, into my home.

I've seen some of the great results with using vinyl. It's something I'm really interested in perusing though I just don't know where to start.

I thought I'd just put it out there and see if anyone has any experience in applying vinyl art to walls - I'd really like to hear from you. Things I'd like to know are:

How to compose the image - what format, etc.

Who do I go to - to get the vinyl cut etc?

How expensive is it?

How to apply it.

Is it hard to take it off when you're sick of it and does it leave marks on your walls?

April fools!

2007-04-02T12:58:00.000+10:00

So it was April fools yesterday, who did you fool, or who fooled you?

Here's a few noteworthy efforts:

Google's wireless broadband service
This one's a winner ... in-home wireless access by connecting fiber-optic cable through your toilet and into sewage lines. Includes diagrams and photos!!!

Blizzard Introduces the Tinfoil Hat
Very funny - details of a "new craftable item" in World of Warcraft. I love the caption "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you".

Introducing Gmail Paper
Not as effective as the google wifi, but I think this has a much better chance of fooling people.

ThinkGeek's WiiHelm
A helmet based Wii controller ... beware of whiplash.

Not really an April fools, but still, conducted on April 1st and definitely deserves a mention, the Brisbane Zombie Walk had zombies roaming a pre-defined path through Brisbane. Even BBC News reported on it. See also some related zombie photos.

But ... is it art?

2007-03-29T07:20:00.000+10:00

Thanks to dumpr.net for this little bit of fun.

web design inspiration

2007-03-05T18:05:00.000+10:00

A quick props to webdesign-inspiration.com for featuring my freshest design in their showcase of beautiful sites. I feel pretty honoured, they've got some really hot stuff over there actually.

Launchy Fun

2007-02-13T13:10:00.000+10:00

JB installed Launchy on my PC lastnight. It's a tight little program that makes starting those apps super quick. You just hit alt+spacebar in windows and up comes the little prompt where you type in the program name (or even just the first few characters), hit enter and like magic, your app is up and running.

I'd seen him use a similar program on his mac before, so after the feeling of "that's really cool I have this going on my pc", I went straight to where my mind wanted to take me, and that was ... typing rude (and some not rude) words in Launchy to see what programs it would try to associate them with.

JB and I had a little chuckle at some of the results, and then he admitted, "Cara, I've done quite a few installs of this program for friends and clients, but never seen it used quite like this."

Here are some tame results:

g-pen

2007-01-04T12:10:00.000+10:00

I'm always saying to myself that I want to do more illustration. As I'm already comfortable with and have a love for electronic media, I have been toying with the idea of getting a graphics tablet - though the price has always kept them out of reach.

Thanks to zazz.com.au, I purchased a Genius G-Pen Graphics Tablet for less than $60 delivered!

So what did I do as soon as I got it working? Started drawing rainbows of course!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T14:32:00.000+10:00

\(^o^)/

So it's time again to make resolutions and take the time to reflect on (and sometimes cringe over) our actions and accomplishments over the past year.

What 2006 meant to me.

Overall I'd probably give 2006 an 8/10. While it couldn't top 2005 (moving to Brisbane was one of the best decisions I've ever made), it was still a pretty darn good year. It started off at a killer party in Toowong, making some spur of the moment resolutions which thankfully only a few friends were there to witness, which in light of what happened during the year took on umm, ... extra meaning.

Things were so cruisy for me at the beginning of 2006. I think I'll always reflect upon this time as the happiest in my life. Things were just so incredibly great and the best part was, I knew it. I was healthy, I had a pumping social life, work was satisfying, I was single and having the time of my life.

It wasn't possible to maintain that high throughout the entire year, and I did have a few low points, mainly centred around personal relationships and work uncertainty but things seemed to thankfully repair naturally before the year was out.

As far as achievements go, there's a few to mention ...

2006 was the year I bought my first house!
I finally plucked up enough courage to buy my very own home. I've been wanting to/saving for years to do it, though my overseas trips set me back. Years ago, the thought of doing it on my own terrified me but like most big decisions, I warmed to the right choice and made the leap. So now I'm living in it, it's pretty comfortable, though a bit empty. Not quite milk crates on the floor or anything, but outdoor furniture is currently living indoors due to lack of proper seating. So for the time being I'll keep shopping for a comfy couch.

The year I graduated from University
I changed my enrolment to an Associate Degree in Multimedia Studies rather than the Bachelor and graduated! Hooray to me!

The year I bought my first gaming console
That's right, I even went to the midnight launch of the Nintendo Wii! It took me about a week to recover from missing what was almost an entire nights sleep - that's a story in itself, but now I have my Wii and I'm a happy girl.

The year I was interviewed on TV
I have blogged about this previously - I was interviewed by ABC2's Good Game, and my interview was aired on their premiere episode in September 2006. Talking about World of Warcraft, which I'm now taking a break from. LOL. My account is still active, I’ve just had restricted internet access since about November so yeah I've taken a break.

So I think that's about it for 2006, bring on 2007!

blogger "improvements"

2006-12-13T18:34:00.000+10:00

It feels like I've been with blogger.com since, ... forever. Though for the past year or so I've increasingly wanted to install wordpress for this blog. Only having MS SQL available as part of my hosting, not the required MySQL has however prevented me!

So I heard Blogger.com finished beta, and that there's all sorts of little handy widgets ... which are available to users who either create new blogs or ditch their own old templates and adopt the Blogger.com "layouts". Finally, Blogger.com users can have categories for their posts! That was the biggest reason why I wanted to switch to wordpress. Though how disappointed am I, those handy widgets and extra functionality is only available to users that host their blogs on blogspot!!!! ARGH!

I know I'd be able to mimic categories with a bit of hacking and fiddling around, ... it's on my "to do one day" list so for now, please excuse the mess!

ccSalon

2006-11-27T15:47:00.000+10:00

creative commons australia (CCau) invites you to its first ccSalon, a showcase of the creative commons in australia.

a live showcase of creative commons art, music, film + text in australia

29 november 2006, 6.00 till 8.00 pm @ the block
qut creative industries precinct, musk avenue, kelvin grove, Brisbane

A flyer is available from the site:
http://creativecommons.org.au/ccsalon

I love birthdays ... that means CAKE!

2006-10-25T14:51:00.000+10:00

For JB's recent birthday, I thought instead of getting him some useless present, I'd try my hand at cooking a cake and decorating it in gamer theme, a mario bros coin box:

Not exactly a difficult task, but it did mean I had to go buy cake tins, a beater, etc as I don't think I've ever really cooked a cake (which wasn't packet mix) before!

I cooked the two square butter cakes (omg yummy!!!!) the night before, and planned to decorate it right before we were due at his birthday party. Time got away from me, so I had my room mate help me out with some of the decorating so we could make it to the party in time.

I was pretty chuffed with how it turned out. It wasn't quite in proportion, but given more time I could have easily added an extra layer with the cake I had left over.

Hotel Fox

2006-10-12T20:26:00.000+10:00

While googling for The Fox - the bar in South Brisbane (see blog post "The Fox"), I came across The Fox Hotel. A hotel in central Copenhagen ...

61 rooms, 21 artist, 1,000 ideas. Each room is an individual piece of art. From whacky comical styles to strict graphic design. From fantastic street art and Japanese Manga to simply spaced out fantasies.

Simply stunning!

The Fox

2006-10-11T19:57:00.000+10:00

Having started at a new job a couple of weeks ago, I wandered down the road on Friday afternoon with some of my work mates to check out The Fox, a bar in South Brisbane. Most of Brisbane is probably already aware of it, but it's new to me! It's got a great rooftop bar with a really cool view of the city. My lovely workmate Laura took a pic and has kindly let me publish it!

Cara on TV!

2006-09-20T13:44:00.000+10:00

I spent a very exiting 6 of my 15 minutes of fame lastnight when my interview on Good Game was aired on their premiere episode.

Premiering on ABC2 and ABC Online on Tuesday 19 September at 8.30pm, Good Game is a program by gamers for gamers. Each week it will be jam-packed with the latest gaming news and events, top gaming tips, reviews, techniques to pimp and boost your machine, and interviews with game developers and the people behind the scenes.

I was asked to talk about a game that I'm really into, World of Warcraft. I was actually a bit worried about how it would come across - I found it difficult to talk about the game without using too much tech speak. So there was a bit of umming going on but generally I think it turned out okay. :)

» watch the video stream on the good game website

My name was mispelled though, they sometimes used kara not cara - only in some places though. Oh wells!

I have to say it was so exciting to watch - when junglist hearthstoned to my house we all cheered and our eyes were glued to the screen! Though to be honest I was more excited to see my character on tv than my own face - very funny to see me and 4 guildies (all level 60 characters) owning up Ragefire, dancing on the Orgrimmar bank, and footage of my priest with a sword equipped. My roomie rang afterwards - he was so excited to see his fridge on TV! Hehe!

I'm so glad that there's now a TV show like this. The guys did a great job presenting and it was really enjoyable to sit around and watch with my friends and have a laugh.

Open for Business

2006-08-23T17:32:00.000+10:00

It's very rare that I publicise the fact that I'm available for web work - it would just seem to find me, through friends or people I meet. Working full-time and studying part-time for the past few years didn't really allow me to be involved in extra projects and I had to pick and choose what I wanted to work on and slot them in around my other commitments.

However, now that I've finished Uni (I graduate with an Associate Degree in Multimedia in September), I find myself tapping my fingers on my desk some evenings wondering what I could be doing.

If you have the need for a Graphics/HTML/CSS designer for a specific upcoming project, I'd like to hear from you. Drop me an email: misscara (at) gmail (dot) com

UPDATE (20 Sept 2006): I'm now unavailable for the next couple of months with some exciting new projects - check back for updates! :)

That's how I roll ...

2006-08-08T13:37:00.000+10:00

Well I certainly got a little surprise this morning while getting my usual fill of geek news. While reading the web standards group announcement "some links for light reading" (always worthwhile), I came across cssprincess.com. Interesting, as I titled myself a pixel princess a couple of weeks ago. Turns out I've made it onto their homepage ...

» cssprincess.com

CSS Princess is project with the main idea for promoting and supporting beautiful and interesting css sites made by woman's hand or woman's touch. It's well known that women designers have special sensibility which they always put in their work, and main idea of web site gallery created by cssprincess.com is to show the best web sites worldwide which have a woman's touch in their design.

O.o

Brisbane Web Standards Group Meeting - August

2006-08-08T13:30:00.000+10:00

Date: Thursday August 31
Time: 6.30pm for 7.00pm
Cost: $5
RSVP: brisbane@webstandardsgroup.org
Lyn Egas: A blind users experience of the web
Michael Rees: The Influence of Ajax on Web 2.0
http://webstandardsgroup.org/meetings/index.cfm?event_id=71

cssremix.com

2006-08-01T18:33:00.000+10:00

Props to cssremix.com for featuring me on their site. Now someone own up to who submitted my site ... cmooonnnnnn.

a:tribute

2006-07-27T18:24:00.000+10:00

Now I hear you say "Where did all the rainbow's go?"

This post is just a tribute, to the site that once was filled with rainbows.

» re-live the memories, view the screenshot of a happier time.

Splendourized

2006-07-24T16:37:00.000+10:00

Whoa, well I'm home from a verrrry long weekend at Byron Bay where I went for Splendour in the ~~Grass~~ Mud. What an amazing festival. While not dancing along to some great acts, I was walking around in mud/chipbark/hay/puddles trying to navigate around the other 17,449 people at the event.

Note to self: Next year buy Gumboots well in advance. I thought it would be a great idea to get gumboots a few weeks ago, but before leaving Brisbane for our trip to Byron I went shopping and decided that it was all sunny and it wouldn't rain so I didn't buy any. Silly mistake.

I got to see the likes of Youthgroup, Bob Evans, The Grates, Pnau, Dj Shadow, Matisyahu, Ajax, Presets, Pete Murray, Scissor Sisters ... though there was one performance that stood out as my favourite live music experience to date ... Paul Mac. I was amazed, I was thrilled, I was totally blown away by the performance. It was just so much fun to dance around to some really great music. The girls sang perfectly. I could have left splendour straight after and know I got my moneys worth.

Photos:
» JB's Gallery
» View the Splendour 2006 Triple J Gallery

Living Life: Life Coaching

2006-07-20T18:00:00.000+10:00

I created the website for my inspirational brother, George Williams. It's now online:

» www.livinglife.com.au.

mario + peach

2006-07-18T17:39:00.000+10:00

My cousin had a house warming party with a G or S theme. We found JB a Super Mario costume, and got the matching Princess Peach costume ... well, she has a game called Super Princess Peach now.

Here were the results:

Scions of Dark Realms

2006-07-12T17:40:00.000+10:00

As you might already know, I'm a bit of a gamer, well ... World of Warcraft addict, and I play some other games too. ;)

Here's an attempt at a logo I did a few months back for my WoW guild, Scions of Dark Realms. This is me attempting a darker side:

» Scions of Dark Realms

WoW shop talk

2006-04-21T10:37:00.000+10:00

After a long break from World of Warcraft (around 4 months), I've recently started levelling my human warrior character on frostmourne. She's my first 30+ alliance character, and also my first on a PvP server. A few things I've learned:

1. Paladins still make me shake my head, even from an alliance point of view.
2. Alliance quests suck.
3. PvP allows players to be unjustifyiably cruel.
4. Undead rogues who cheap shot unsuspecting human warriors while they're vendoring in their own INN, are lame.
5. Shield bashing shammies is fun! ^.^
6. Having an undead mage chase you all around the countryside is even more fun - especially when you turn around, charge, and 1-shot them. tee-he-he-he!

I'm not sure if it's just because I have always hated alliance, or if they genuinely just suck, but some of the quest lines have been ridiculous - running back and forth between NPC's in different towns - there's only so much talking I can take before I wanna take my two-handed sword to their goofy lookin' asses. I truly appreciate this accurate penny arcade comic.

I never really understood alot about paladins. They were always just about as annoying as mosquitos. Those annoying little bandits, popping themselves into a bubble and taunting us at the first sign of trouble. The other evening I logged in while having dinner, and while checking my mail at the local inn, a pally invites me into his party, feeling easy-going, I accepted his invitation without question. I said "sup?", the next thing, BAM, i'm stuck, unable to move, in an invulnerable bubble, and he's lying there on the ground next to me, dead. Next thing he said in party chat was "OMG COOL!!!!". I was wondering what the hell just happened - not knowing much about pally skills - he continued to inform me that he just got that skill and wanted to see what it did. Though, what he said next made me laugh: "This skill must be for if someone tries to ninja a chest or something". Yeah, that'd work. LOL.

featured on cssremix!

2006-04-19T09:09:00.000+10:00

more shoutouts! this time to cssremix.com for showcasing my little blog on their site!