hmmm

What a weird day - it's pouring, teeming rain while clear blue sky reigns in the distance. A rainbow made a brief appearance outside my window and yet apparently the rest of Australia is clear and cloudless!?

Nice day to be at home playing my new ukulele. Hmmm.

I call him/her bluey

We've a healthy population of Australian wildlife in St Peters. Considering our proximity to the city we have plenty of rainbow lorikeets, cockatoos, native minors and flying foxes.

Our population of skinks has also exploded recently, however, the last animal we expected to find in our courtyard was this blue tongue lizard! Last time I'd been this close to a blue tongue was around 20 years ago - growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney.

Needless to say he/she was a feisty one, hissing at our cat as we walked past the backdoor. We put him/her in the backyard and he/she headed straight for the one and only exit point. We're guessing that's the way he/she entered the yard - getting stuck in the courtyard due to a large step.

Good luck Bluey hope to see you again someday.

it's alive!

I've started looking into the Flickr API and how I can use it to make although look sexy and decrease the need for maintaining web pages.

I've taken the easy route with this version of although as I've used the Flickr Badge script to grab image thumbnails. Future versions will use the API as I have found the Badge script to be very limiting for my requirements.

Ultimately, I would like access to the larger image sizes which will effect the way I visually represent although. For a designer who chooses not to code I am finding this to be quite fun and also an interesting challenge.

although skateboards

Whipped these up over the weekend using my existing t-shirt designs. Hope you like them...although skateboards.

my guitar

Here's a new addition to my collection that I recently found in a Newtown pawn shop. I am guessing that it's a 1960's (japanese-made) copy of the Gibson E-335. Despite the cool mimicked ancestory of the guitar, it was the brand that caught my eye. Jason!

Cheap reproductions from the 1960's aren't as bad as you may imagine. In my collection I have the Jason guitar and a Winston bass (copy of the Gibson SG). Both are project guitars and need a bit of work to make them truly playable, however there were some facets I liked when I first played both guitars.

The pickups are cheap and there's not much to them, though the tone they produce is unique and pleasant. The body wood is laminated, though with almost 50 years to dry out, resonance would be improved and the guitar much lighter in weight. The Jason guitar in particular is a semi-hollow bodied guitar with a great acoustic tone that is woody and quite loud. The necks aren't very wide and feature: string trees that apply even pressure to all strings; and my favourite the zero fret. A zero fret ensures the same tone for open and fretted notes.

To make one of these guitars playable you would need to: clean it; resolder all connections; potentially replace some electronics; redress, replace or remove the fretwork; replace the strings; and ideally replace all screws. Be careful when tightening old screws - I once sheared a neck plate screw, leaving half embedded in the guitar. Doh!

I do enjoy tinkering and cheap guitars are an ideal way to learn and practice on. I do also enjoy a guitar branded with my name - maybe my first born should be named Gibson? Which reminds me, my dream acoustic guitar is a Taylor!

what a party!

We had our all-day end of Financial Year party for Atlassian last Friday (4th July). Well done to Robyn and a huge thanks to Mike and Scott as this particular party would have to be one of the best internal events I've ever attended.

Yes, we celebrate the end of financial year at Atlassian, and yes we get a whole day out of the office! This year was themed the 'Atlassian Brothers Circus' and we all got to learn some essential circus tricks (in case we really decide to run away and join the circus).

Pictured here is my team for the day taking their well-deserved accolades for their re-enactment of a scene from the "Great Escape" (to the "Karate Kid" team note the word scene). Photo credit to Lachlan Hardy and pictured from left-to-right are: Dmitry; Kate; Lea; Dushan; James; Andrew; Tim (Steve McQueen); Miroslav; and Jeff. Nice t-shirts guys!

Speaking of which I have uploaded some of the graphics created for the day in the illustration section.

Been busy on the homefront and have added a couple of new t-shirt designs at RedBubble.

By the way, if the idea of working at Atlassian seems like a good one, we're always hiring.

bubble cloud

Been quiet for far too long! Mostly due to an inundation of projects at work, however, on the home front I have been uploading artwork to RedBubble. Check it out! I created the store so I could wear my own designs - my first order is due soon, so I will let you know how it goes.

On another front I recorded a new track over the last (rainy) weekend - Storm Cloud.