Don't you think there's more to life than being really really really, ridiculously good looking?

Woah!!! Who recognised the quote that forms my post title? If you said Zoolander, ten points! But how is this relevant to my post?

Today, I discovered The Model Home Project. This is an initiative whereby male models from NYC go to New Orleans to rebuild houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

And they looked mighty damn fine while doing that.

(I'm sorry. I just can't look at these photos without thinking of Zoolander.)

This plan is brilliant on two fronts. Not only does it take advantage of all the exercise I'm sure models do to keep in shape, it also brings joy to half the pop. of New Orleans! Sheer genius.

And brought to you by the wonderful folk at Armani!

Updated links

Because The Circle is slowly moving overseas (although they appear to just be migrating to London), various members have started up blogs to keep in touch with each other. I've added links to their places under the *links* section, naturally, but they're also linked below.

Alisha
Thaomanda
Kat(i)e
and Poosy is of course here.

HBO - Rome

I've heard good reports of this show when it aired in the US and UK last year. Unforch, it took aaaaaaaaaaages for it to come here, but after watching the first episode last week, I totally believed the wait to be worth it and started to look for people to convince to download it.

After watching tonight's ep...I was horrified ot hear the voiceover say it would be the last episode *for the time being*.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great, it's probably going to go off and either be played at some god-forsaken time like 12am or worse, never, while brainless crap gets played instead.

The Old Me

I can't remember why, but I was talking to Miss Pooky and somewhere along the line, I mentioned that in March 1986 I was 100cm tall (yes, exactly 1 metre!) and weighed 14kg. She couldn't see in her mind how small that could possibly be, so I offered to show her evidence.

I don't know what year this is from (maybe 3yo?), but it shows me wearing my former favourite dress.
I took this photo about 20 minutes ago. Yes, I still own that dress, I said it was my favourite!From collar to hem, it is 55.5cm in length. Lets say the combined length of my little legs and head in that photo is 30cm...I'm only 86cm tall in that photo!

ACB gets drunk

During semester, we generally have a seminar on Friday afternoons. After the seminar, we generally have after-seminar drinks and food...possibly as a bribe to make sure we stay around for the seminar. Regardless, this is usually taken as an opportunity for some of the younger members (such as myself) to booze up everyweek.

This week however, we didn't have a seminar and thus no organised drinks. "No worries!" some of us cried, "We'll just go to where the drinks are!" And so after cracking open a bottle of vodka in the Batcave, we staggered down to Bedford...which is where these photos come in.

Me and Marlene get cuddly

Adey and Nadia.

Ash and Jess.

Nadia gives Turdy a massage.

Marlene tries to get in on the act!

While in conversation with Turdy, John IT punches me in the head.

Even ACB offspring aren't immune to the lure of the pub!

Turdy hits the couch.

Adey and John IT are transfixed by Jewel's Intuition music video.

After Bedford, the more hardcore of us ambled down to Queensberry for even more drinking, this time spiced up with dancing and AFL preliminary finals.

Happy holidays?

One of the great things about working for the university is that you get to live a half-life existence. It's a bit like being in the *real* world (9-5, 5 days a week) while also maintaining that veneer of being a student (flexibility of being able to come and go).

But one of the good/bad things are the term holidays. Its great because there are no students around to clog up the hallways, demanding attention etc...but its also bad because they'll do something like wish my happy holidays...only for me to tell them I dont get one and them going...*ohhhhhh*. It really throws the half-life into relief.

No matter. No students for the next week!

More ball photos

I just want to add that I've also posted Marlene's and Krijn's photos to my album.
Alas, still nothing incriminating.

http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com/ (p/word - 12345)

Alas, no data

Believe it or not (cos I know many won't) I have been working quite hard in the lab for the last few weeks. Problem is unforch, I'm doing stuff like counting cells or taking photographs that don't compress well and hence can't be posted here.

But I am working.

Really.

Domesticity

Funny, my parents leave and suddenly all my domestic instincts just kicked in! Right now I'm baking a cake. Tomorrow, I think I'll vacuum the upstairs rooms.

Dentist vs. Architect

Yesterday after the Ball, I went to a BBQ to recover as well as wish some friends bon voyage (they're heading to Londres indefinitely - see Poosy's blog for their identity). Naturally, with any aggregation of people with higher degrees, we started doing stupid things. It started off with arm-wrestling until two guys dependent on their hands for their livelihood decided to challenge each other to a match of Slap Hands.

So who won? The steady dental hands of Dr. Wong or the arty ones of Damo the Architect? Check out this photo and decide for yourself.
I really wish my camera wasn't low on battery so I could have posted a video on youtube.

The 2006 Postgraduate Ball

Wow! I'm getting old!!! I attended this ball and it's completely stuffed up my sleeping pattern!

Naturally as La Presidente, I had to make sure ACB gave good showing so I managed to recruit Ash, Adey, Turdy, Marlena, The Rees lab, Blue, Becstar and Maverick. The event was at the Museum so that naturally appealed to us, or at least me as seen in this photo below!The theme was 80s and so we saw a lot of people there dressed in their best lycra, frills (my dress was cooed over in the loos for being a *raa-raa*) and crimped hair. The guys however, liked to take it to another level by wearing revolting skinny jeans, snakeskin and lots of mullets. Below are Ash doing his best/worst Shane Warne (euw!) and Ronnie...whose mullet actually looked surprisingly realistic.
There were also some more creative people who wore costumes of 80s characters. Some of the best were the Ghostbusters...
(These guys actually did the strut when their song was played, but I didnt get a photo of it)
Super Mario + Maverick from Top Gun...and these Smurfs getting smurfy.
If someone had a bad time, they didn't have the nerve to tell me, so I can declare a good time was had by all!
Lydia and I swung around her place to change our killer heels for less painful shoes and then we all hied off to Velour for the afterparty for more hijinks.

More photos can be seen at http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com/ (p/word = 12345)

One Day More!

and then I can collect my dress from the shop! (It's being altered)

Macbeth 2006

I'm not a brilliant Shakespeare scholar or anything, but I do tend to enjoy it whenever I manage to catch it either on TV/movies/theatre. And while I know some people hate it when the plays are adapted to modern setting while retaining the Shakespearean language (e.g. Baz Luhmann's Romeo and Juliet), I've never really had a problem with it so long as the adaptation essentially retains the meaning of the text and situation.

Having said that, this version of Macbeth will be coming out soon.



It has been transplanted from a battle for supremacy in mediaeval Scotland to the Melbourne criminal underworld from the first half of this decade. I think it's an interesting concept. But what makes it even better is that I have free tickets.

Anyone up for it?

Quiet weekend at home part two

Today I went ball dress shopping with Kirsty. (I'll post photos of what I bought soon - stupid me left my camera at uni!) I'm tired now, so I'm going to spend the rest of the day at home...possibly watching TopGear.

After starting off on Lygon where I tried on a 50s-style strapless black ruffled dress, Kirsty tried on a magenta grecian-style gown. We both liked our dresses, but had enough misgivings (me about the style, she about the colour and cut) that we called Ash as an emergency third option and went to lunch. We decided to head into the city where we would meet with increased options. Kirsty was adamant she wanted a black dress while I was pretty sure I wanted a red one, and after working our way through a number of stores looking for black grecian and red strapless gowns...we ended up at the first stores we went to and buying the first dresses we tried on. Ah well. I also bought these shoes from Ninewest - they were too cute to pass up and matched the dress!

I guess I'll just have to not buy any new clothes for the summer.

Friday night-lite!

Normally I'm out raging on a Friday...but tonight I'm home! Gosh!

How I Met Your Mother

As a kid, I used to love Thursday nights. They heralded the beginning of the end of the week, my weekly acting classes, and lots of TV shows I didn't really understand at the time but laughed at nonetheless. Well the first and the last points still stand! It used to be that I'd watch stuff like Las Vegas (don't laugh! It's a highly enjoyable show!) and The Amazing Race. Those however are now off the air and the sit-com double-team that's got my attention now are How I Met Your Mother and My Name is Earl. I won't wax lyrical on Earl simply because so many other people already have.

How I Met Your Mother features five twenty-somethings living in NYC, main guy Ted (Josh Radnor), his best friends Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan - Willow!), another friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris - Doogie Howser!), and the girl that Ted is infatuated with, Robin (Cobie Smulders). An explanation of the plot is here.

Part of the reason I like this show is it's similarity to The Wonder Years - each episode features narration from Future-Ted (Bob Saget). While as a kid I could laugh along with the tribulations of Kevin Arnold despite the fact I'm obviously not a boy growing up in the '60s, now that I'm in the same age frame and point in life, I can really sympathise with Ted! Not in the frantic *must find someone to settle with* way he has, but in the *20s are coming to an end, time to get a bit serious with what I want in life*. I suppose it helps that Radnor is kinda cute in that clueless way.

Some reviews I read of Mother said that the humour seemed strained, but I disagree. The jokes and situations the characters find themselves in are still similar to me - trying to decide if you're too old to go clubbing and if you should start finding *mature* entertainment, blowing off studying for exams to go drive somewhere, the perils of dating and where to find single people, the effects of too much alcohol...etc. Because the situations are ones where I can identify with, so too the humour seems totally normal BECAUSE IT'S TRUE! Ok, maybe not the time that Barney spends the entire night dirty dancing with a girl in a club only to find its his cousin - EUW!
While it's not brilliant the way Earl or Supernatural is, I think Mother is one of the better shows to have come out this year. And I know when Ted finds the right girl, she's gonna be awesome. ;)

Final face

So yesterday afternoon, Nance and I trundled down to the city for the competition.
So below is a photo of me with my *new* face and Marlene...except she requested that her face not be posted online.
And here is a photo of me front on. I think she did quite well. I mean , I still looked like myself, although what is not captured in these photos (god I'm unphotogenic) was the fact that I looked like a doll. All in all, it was quite fun and Nance has agreed to do my face for the ball. Yay!

Spreading sweet-sweetness

I love food. I love cooking. And of my favourite cooking *technique*, I love baking.

I've been practicing for a while now for the annual ACB bake-off, my entry day of which is Sept 11 (nice and easy to remember). This year's criteria is *herbs or spices* so I've been making an apple-crumble cake. Each time I've made it, I've tried to modify it to increase the bits that people like best (the crumble top) and to correct for my crappy home oven (I think I might just have to use someone else's). And because I've been practicing, my lab and various other people in the dept. have been happily hoeing into variations of my apple cake, which then brings me to this...

I love it when people enjoy food. I love when people acknowledge a good dish. And I love how a good meal can spread a sheen of cheer over a crowd of people.

In these crazy diet-fuelled times, people may curse me for giving them things loaded in butter and sugar but deep inside, you know you love it all too.

Make up comp with Nance

Nancyti has decided to enter a makeup competition with me as her model face. We're entering the *natural look* category and have decided that pinks are the way to go.
Looks pretty natural - looks like I'm not wearing make up at all!

Those freesias

In all their yellow glory. Unforch they are dead now. Easy come, easy go.

Movie review - Snakes on a Plane

Holy shit, people, THIS MOVIE ROCKED!!! No, I'm being serious - I REALLY enjoyed this movie! All you need to do to enjoy this movie is go in with the right mindset, and like me, you'll be howling with laughter the entire time.

You don't really need more explanation of the plot than what's in the title, but just in case anyone was wondering how those snakes got on that plane...after witnessing a gangster kill a prosecutor, Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) is in the witness protection program and is being transported from Hawaii to LA. The agent who has been charged with looking after him is Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson). The gangster decides that the best way to eliminate the witness is therefore to put lots of snakes on that plane...and the story writes itself!

Okay, anyone walking into this movie expecting anything more than 1.5 hours of complete dumbass fun...man, you deserve to feel ripped off. Anyone who wants to see a move where Sam Jackson does a lot of yelling, makes crazy eyes, and kicks the shit out of a bunch of snakes...THIS IS IT. He makes this movie!!! And it's full of Sam Jackson-esque quotes delivered Sam Jackson style!
"Do as I say and you'll live! "
"Great, snakes on crack."
(When Sean complains that it's getting hot on the plane) "I'm from Tennessee, I didn't notice! "
(After pulling out his gun) "We're about to open some fucking windows"
And the absolute clincher -
"Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"
Not only was this movie full of fun and disgusting ways for snakes to kill people (snakes on a nipple, snakes on a penis, snakes in the eye, swallowed by an anaconda...) it also has fun ways for people to kill snakes! I thought it was damn hilarious that while everyone was freaking out, Sam Jackson just picks up and throws the first snake he sees!

This is a wonderfully crappy movie that thrives in its crappiness. There are all the cliched characters with all their cliched plot sections - the stewardess on her last flight, the sexist pilot, the campy steward, the fat woman, the snotty brit, the rich princess with the chihuahua, the boy who's meant to look after his little whiny brother, the kickboxer, the hip-hop star and his entourage, the newly married couple...all brought together and under the command of the badassmotherf@#$er FBI agent after some snakes take over their plane.

If you're in need of some cheering up and wanna do some public hooting, see this movie. Sit back and enjoy the pure-B gradedness of the whole thing and you'll walk out satisfied.
8/10

As an extra, here's a complete walkthrough of the movie if you want to *prepare* yourself.

Got Milk?

Yes please!