A while ago I mentioned I was working on a couple of books. The shoe's book is still coming along, slowly but surely. I'll be collecting some more photos during May while I'm in China, watching my mother attempt to beat the record of how many pairs she can buy in a single day (currently thats 24 pairs of shoes & 13 handbags).

While I was in Cambodia in late 2007, I spent some time at the village of Chong Khneas on the Tonlé Sap lake. I've finally finished putting together the book about the village & its life.

The book, Life on the Lake, is 10"x8" (25cm x 20cm) which is not quite A4 in size, landscape in orientation & hardcover. There is no dust jacket, the cover itself is directly printed onto the hardcover with a durable matte finish. There are 60 pages & around 63 photos (though I can't say I've counted the exact number of photographs).



Front & Back covers, including spine


( Preview of 'Life on the Lake' behind the cut )

[grins]

Yup, that's right - recordings.
Well, only the one is online for the moment.... & it's rather dodgy.

Yesterday was the weekly jamming day for the band &, due to outside influences like work & uni, we were missing the_toclafane & Lex. So it was just br1de, myself & Anthony (Benn's laptop that the drums, keyboard & synth run through).

( Tin whiskers in the wind, bright eyes catch the light... )

Dear Jessica,
Oh how I love thee. Let me count the ways;
One onethousand, two onethousands, three onethousands...

Wll rats to the toons, here's one of the reasons I couldn't do less than love Pete:

Let me set the scene.
It's coming up on midnight. We're curled up on the sofa & have just finished watching Mean Machine (you know; prison & football). Shadow is curled up beside us snoring.

"Hmm. I want chocolate," he says.

I, of course, mistook it for 'Should we watch another one?' so I said, "yes, go on you're awake. You know you want to."
He had no idea what I was talking about & figured it was another one of my obscure references.

I follow him to the kitchen to see if he's found anything & he comes from the pantry area with eggs, butter & a block of cacao.

He's baking chocolate cake. Enough for 2 tins.
& he gave me the beater to lick. I didn't even have to ask XD

Midnight snacking at its finest.

My love of D&D is no secret, hell the first game I ever went to I was 2 weeks old... so its rather expected. Actually my love of Role Playing in general isn't really a secret either. I rather enjoy WoD & Rifts too. XD

There's a facebook game, written by WoTC, called D&D Tiny Adventures which a whole bunch of us are irrevocably addicted to. [grins] We even got bondchick_nett hooked, mostly thanks to moonlaspe's reverse psychology method; he invited everyone on his friends list except her.

But then bondchick_nett posted this on her elljay & I just had to see what the legit D&D quiz would say I was.

No surprises. XD

D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium

Now make her a Drow & chaotic evil & BAMF! You have my favourite character, Lileynia; she played over 2 different campaigns, linked by willing GMs. Or up the bard to ECL16 & prestige her to Foclucan Lyrist & you have Nastacia... also a drow.

After an IM session with lauriethemuppet, bondchick_nett & javabean_dreams I discovered that I forgot to post this before now.

It's the article that was published in the Kalamunda Community Matters while I was in hospital last year.

This paper is delivered to 19,000 homes, not including businesses, throughout the Kalamunda Shire.

( Cambodia: Not Just for Tomb Raiders )

You know, one of these days I just might get around to uploading a recorded song. You never know. Why photos before music? Probably because I'm a photographer rather than a recording studio. =P

So here are some shots from our jamming & silliness.

( Click click sproing tick whirrrrr )

I've previously mentioned that one of my current projects is about Shoes. Well, I'm still working on it. The photo shoots for it are coming along well & in the meantime I'm still collecting anecdotes.

This is an addition to the anecdotes. This is not a meme, but it is a questionaire. I would really appreciate it if you listed your answers to as many as possible as a comment here.

You are more than welcome to comment anonymously, though it would help greatly if you tell me where in the world you are. For example; south australia, minnesota, ireland. Your age would greatly help too, even if its just an age bracket & isn't exact (5-12, 13-17, 18-21, 22-30, 31-50, 50-70). Also, please let me know if you are male or female. You may also email me instead of commenting on this page on draganin@dragancaor.net should you wish. Please use the title of this post as your subject line if you email.

( These boots were made for walking, & that's just what they'll do... )

So last night I visited mum & spent a couple of hours photographing my dogs. Not the best of ideas really. Crawling about on my stomach on the brick paving attempting to shoot one dog & avoid being licked on the face by the other? TODAY HURTS LOTS.

Reggie staying still is rare. She's a Jack Russell x Cocker Spaniel. She's also still technically a puppy at 2 years old.

Ozzie will come up & lick your face the moment you are at his level. He's a staffy x pitbull terrier. He's 11 years old & really starting to show it =(

( Woof! Woof! Bloody Woof Woof Woof! Translation: Click here for 10 pics! )

The Passionate One
Your dominant Chakra is the "Root or Red Chakra"




You scored 100% on Passion, 94% on Desire, 53% on Purpose, 100% on Balance, 89% on Expression, 100% on Imagination, & 100% on Spirituality.

( Red's Red )

Quiz found via cindyanne1 & can be done at Hello Quizzy

Christmas... or Annual Capitalist Gift Day Celebrated on the Wrong Day For A Man Who May or May Not Have Been Fictional. Before you say anything, I'm Irish Catholic. Keep any & all of your religious views that you might add to this, or any other of my entries, open & friendly or shut the hell up. XP

Photos & no more religious bollocks follow the cut.
( SNIP SNIP! (get the reference right, gain cookies) )

Just a little bit of random.
Something I don't normally talk about. In truth, I have no idea why I am, but perhaps its just me looking for things that make me smile.

Clockwork Autumn is my band, & the other day it was just Benn (br1de) & I jamming & stuffing around at his place as Jawa (the_toclafane) was at work thanks to 'christmas' retail hours.

So I grabbed my camera out... & in the spirit of stuffing around, I put my 10mm extreme wide angle lens on her. 180 degrees of view. Which means in one shot, you can see my feet XD

( Four photographs lie hidden behind this cut )

I just had a fight with one of the labs I use.

I had to take 300+ photos back to be redone. Not happy. At all.

Especially considering they started having a cow about me looking through them to check in the shop. So I left, went upstairs for a coffee at the Dome, & started looking through them quickly just to sort them into groups of wedding, zoo, art gallery opening, models etc & found that almost every single one of the 6x4" prints had a green/blue line on the short edges. Some of them only on one edge, most on both. So I went back downstairs to the lab & showed them.

But they aren't reprinting them.
No, they're going to TRIM them. Which means they will no longer be 6x4".

Can you imagine how angry I am right now?

I turned around, in the store which has already picked that I do this professionally considering I've got my lowepro pack on & I got 8x12" prints from Libby's wedding, & said, "I should have gone to Fitzgeralds but I was close & thought I'd bring them here while I was in the area. I should have known better."

I have to go back tomorrow to get them & hope that they've done them by the time I get in.
I ordered them on Friday.

If they've screwed up the laptop bag print that I ordered there will be hell to pay. That's not due in until the 19th December though. We'll see.

Aquired from jessalie_aranya & lauriethemuppet

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well, let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

( Rip Rip Woodchip, turn it into paper... )

Bold the things you've done.

( Another Meme - What have you done?? )

It finally happened.

Massive & heartfelt congratulations go out to Lisa & Phil Wilson after they finally tied the knot & made things 'official' yesterday afternoon in their beautiful wedding ceremony at Subiaco Common, Western Australia.

( Photos )

The Echo Newspaper was founded on the 5th August 1985.

With a circulation that covers the City of Swan and shires of Mundaring and Kalamunda, the Echo reaches a mix of suburban and country areas. This includes both city commerce and agriculture throughout the Swan Valley. Not only do they have the widest circulation in the area, the Echo also has the highest readership.

The preferred delivery method is direct to householder’s letterboxes. They are delivered with military precision by PMP Distribution every Saturday. People have come to expect their weekend read of the Echo, so if for some reason a paper is not delivered to a regular customer, there is a toll-free number in place for readers to contact them. Delivery is audited by Circulations Audit Board (CAB) then validated by Arthur Anderson showing a 97.4% success rate in home deliveries.
-Perth Suburban News-

They also deliver stacks to shopping centres & community centres throughout the distribrution zones. Service Stations, swimming pools, libraries & cafes have stands displaying the current week's edition.

Circulation: 49,568
Total Readership: 75,898

( front page )

Short & to the point, but just absolutely had to share....

I just got a phonecall asking for one of my shots to go on the FRONT PAGE of the Echo!!

The Echo is part of the Community Newspaper Group. It's one of WA's 3 mainstream newsgroups. The West Australian, the Sunday Times & the Community Newspaper Group.

This is Tallulah, age 4, roaring at the Kalamunda Zig Zag "Kalaborate in '08" Festival. She was making a felt necklace when her parents gave me permission to take her photograph. Even with the googly eyes on my camera, she went really shy.... until I suggested that she was a lion & asked how her roar was. Then she was enjoying herself so much no one could get her to stop!

I've sent the full resolution version of the photograph through to the paper. I'm yet to find out if it prints today or tomorrow. But the moment it's on stands I'll be getting myself a copy & will scan & show off share.

The FRONT page.

[grins broadly]

Empress Moppet, known best as 'Moppy' or 'Mopps' or more recently 'Miss M', passed away yesterday evening.

Pete went into the garden to find her, just in front of one of her favourite hiding/sleeping spots. She only lasted a moment longer.

( Miss M )

I'm sitting here waiting for the kettle to boil so that I can have me some lemon tea (with honey of course).

Wednesday was wonderful, relaxing & sheer bliss made up of lots of hazelnut latte & helping to break in a friend's brand new spa. We planned big things, & a fair amount of evil, which was fantastic too - Poster is half finished. Unfortunately I woke up Thursday with the room spinning on two axis, a great big headache, & the loveliness of a fever.

( Fever! In the morning, Fever all through the night )

Too much is happening right now.
The world is a mess.
I am a mess. (Don't pretend you're surprised).

November approaches... & so does National Novel Writing Month.... which is actually international rather than national but hey, why screw with an acronym that works just to be write right.

( Rant ++ Challenge: A novel in four weeks huh? )