So we all listen to a lot of music, right? We talk about it a lot, right? Or maybe we don't talk about it enough.

In any case, for those who haven't yet been introduced to the wonderfulness that is last.fm visit http://last.fm, add me (ruskib), and start scrobbling.

Any music you listen to will form part of your music listening charts and history. It'll make recommendations to your friends, you can browse their profiles and even (this is just a small part of the win) allow you to have streaming radio based on your favourite artists.

http://www.soundamus.net/ will build a list of new releases based on your listening history  via your last.fm account. It also automatically adds upcoming gigs for events in your area to Google Calendar.. complete win!

Tags: last.fm, music, sharing, win
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: working

I struggle to find good coffee sometimes but Lakhoum on Swan Street never fails to disappoint. The barrista there is a fucking magician. He has removed the enigmatic image I have of good coffee houses. There is transparent qualitative and quantitative method to filling my cup so wonderfully.

Clean, wipe, check temperature, clean, flatten, bang, flatten, check, pour.. you get the picture. A finely tuned coffee making engine.

I'm sure there are some coffee drinkers here who can fully comprehend crap vs. wonderful situation. Marta?

My benchmark for a good coffee house:

- You should be able to drink the coffee with no sugar (IMO, sugar in coffee kinda ruins it).
- Black coffees (espresso/machiatto) should not be a mess of burnt tar, hopes and dreams.

To give you an idea why I've prefixed my subject with coffee here are some web snaps of Lakhoum's creations. Yes, every cup you order from there is artistically presented in this way (or variations there of). Amazing.

Tags: coffee, lakhoum, perfect cup
Current Mood: awake

Who would've thought this mildly offensive Y generation maxim would be so motivating?

After months of procrastinating, being sick, being injured and generally just being a useless slacker I finally went to a morning training session. Booyah.

5.10am "The Entertainer" was delightfully sounding from my BlackBerry awakening me from a rather short sleep (sub 6 hours). There was a moments hesitation then I remembered the golden words from my coach yesterday - "Hot Tip: Harden the fuck up". Exactly. Stop being a fucking pansie, pull your budgie smugglers on (along with a plethora of warm lyrca for the oh-so-chilly morning) and ride your slacker behind down to the pool.

Goggles on. Silly swim cap on. Splishy splashy, 1.5 hours later and I win. Finally. Win what? Well it was a small victory but I finally broke the habit that was setting my alarm and immediately resetting it, annoyed, at 5.10am when it went off EVERYDAY for the past 6-8 weeks. In fact it has been so god dammed long since I actually turned up to tri training that I can't even remember the last session I went to.

So here I sit, exhausted, sore arms and legs but full of win. Now to keep it up. Next stop: Velodrome tomorrow morn.

There is something about getting up at the crack of dawn (actually, about an hour and a bit before the crack of dawn) then finally snuggling into bed after a full day at around 11pm only to repeat it all again the next day. Optimising alive hours, I think that's what I'll call it.

So here's to you coach. Thanks for being such an arrogant unforgiving bastard.

Tags: training, triathlon
Current Mood: accomplished

For those who haven't yet experienced the awesome that is Flight of Concords, here's a link to just about every video that appears in the series.. This doesn't mean you shouldn't get hooked and go download the whole series though, it's brilliant.

http://flightoftheconchords.freeblog.hu/categories/lyrics/

Tags: flight of the conchords, link

So there I was, saying goodbye to the monsterous heavy heap of outdated technology that was my old TV. Lovely Ebay chap came to pick it up and helped me heave it down three flights of stairs all 30kg laden in such a way as to put maxium stress through the fibres of our collective quadratus muscles.

Goodbye old TV, I'll miss you.

*ring* *ring* *ring* "Hello, this is Russell". "Yes Hi Russell this is Ebay buyer #27323 the TV is 68cm not 80cm".

Fuck. Panic. What to do now? So like the nice guy I am I offered to the refund his cash, apologised about the mix up and waited patiently while he came to pick it up.

I've been living a lie. The entire time I've had this TV I thought it was 80cm. I told my friends it was 80cm and now this faux 80cm LG is sitting behind my bloody couch again because I was daft enough not to double check, or rather, believed with such conviction that it was a 80cm TV that I had no reason to double check.

Sigh. An Ebay relist and three flights of stairs with a physiotherapy timebomb and hopefully the mother fucker will be somebody elses, 68cm, problem.

Tags: ebay, tv
Current Mood: annoyed

*tap* *tap* *tap* Is this thing on?

Fuck, ok. So yeah Hi.. my names Russ and I like stuff.. like.. long walks on the beach, real long ones, bring a tent.

You might remember me from such episodes as "Joni's 25th" and "Why is that douche over there pretending to be a Tetris piece?"

If you love me, you'll be my friend. If you don't, you'll be my.. well.. not my friend. But add me either way, I'm sure we can make things work. Honest.

Tags: first post, testing
Current Mood: optimistic