Monday, February 27, 2006

Stock Photography

I joined an online stock photography website today. This is the first photo that I uploaded to them.

Now all I have to do is sit back and watch the money come rolling in.

That and upload the rest of my non-people photos.

-Gary

Friday, February 24, 2006

I'm So Thirsty, I Can't Wait My Turn

I was just looking at some old photos in my flickr account, and I haven't seen this photo in a long time.

I really like this photo a lot. It reminds me of a story my Dad told me about a photo he saw of his mom.

It was a photo of her riding in a wheel barrow. He said that in a million years, he couldn't have imagined his mother doing that.

I can only imagine what people who know us 20 years from now will think of this photo. Will we still be the type of people to do funny things for the camera or even with out a camera just for fun?

Will we be happy enjoying life or suffering some sort of crisis?

Will there even be drinking fountains in the future?

-Gary

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Olympic Hockey and Life's Other Woes


Olympic Hockey
Originally uploaded by Tracie Milner.

We lost to Russia. (I guess I'll have to cheer for Finland now!) Not even bronze for Canada's reigning gold medalist hockey team :( Know how I know all this ? Not because these bloody Aussies show any hockey on television, but because I stayed up until nearly 8 in the morning listening to live radio from Vancouver on the internet. Boy...Canadians have THICK accents, eh ?! Quite nice to hear though...I was smiling to myself as I heard words being used that I forgot I haven't heard in a while. Things like, "That was so 'brutal'" and "We were just giv'n'r'!"

Crikey, I recon my rellies and mates back home will sound right strange when I get back.

In other news, I've decided that I need to get in shape. I've downloaded an 18 week marathon training program and I've gone running (Read: "Jogging like an injured koala") every day for the past three days. It's actually not as pittiful as I thought it would be... I can keep up a fair pace for about 30 minutes before I start hurting, and about 45 minutes before I feel like feeding myself to the dingos. My legs are pretty sore, but improving. I haven't signed up for a marathon yet, but I'm thinking of it. I'll give myself a few more weeks before I decide if I can do a full marathon or if I need to sign up for the half. The nice thing about living in Australia is that everyday is a nice day to jog. Even when it's a scorching 40 degrees and humid, going in the evening or early morning is still ok. I'll keep you posted.

-Tracie

Monday, February 20, 2006

Good News

After a week off, I'm back at work, temping in Perth. I'm working in the same office as I was before, another person is off on holiday's.

I'm not sure if they requested me by name, because I had asked my rep at the temp agency to call my previous employers back to ask about working in the evening. It took her a few days, but when she did eventually get around to calling, they had a day job for me that will last at least a week, maybe more.

My new supervisor said she is in the process of hiring a full time person, so she could have need of a temp for an entire month.

I could have done without the week off though. I'm down to about $40 for the next ten days. Hopefully Tracie get paid tomorrow so that I can make the rent on friday with out using the credit card.

I'm invited to Nick's for dinner to night so there's a meal saved, and Tracie learned a cheap pasta meal from the italians in Sydney that costs about $1.50 - $2.00 to make, so if I don't waste all my money on candy, I'll be fine.

-Gary Milner

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Life's a Drag

Tracie and I went to see the drag races a couple of weeks ago. There were a few of the top fuelers here, which were spectacular, but unfortunately only about four of them.

They did the quarter mile in under 5 seconds. It blew my mind.

They claim that this is one of the best drag strips in the world because it is so close to sea level and because the air is so dry here.

The facility is very nice, they have two grassy burms for the spectators to sit on instead of bleachers. I imagine that it keeps the noise down a little bit, and prevents accidents like the time Maude Flanders was killed when a t-shirt fired from a t-shirt cannon knocked her off the top row of the bleacher in an episode of "The Simpsons."

-Gary Milner


Ps. Are the love poems from the 14th something romantic enough to make me not the least romantic person in the entire world? Keep in mind the fact that I got up early while Tracie was still asleep to write them. Comment in the comment section.

Journalists Are Weird

When President Clinton got into trouble with Monika Lewsinski, the news media accused him of being a bad example to the kids of America. It never seemed to occur to them that it was themselves who were spreading the news in graffic detail to anyone who would listen. And they harped on it for years.

Now, Vice President Dick Cheney has had shooting accident. The news media thinks that the real story doesn't concern the shooting incident itself but the fact that Cheney didn't immediately report the incident to the news media. They're absolutey outraged and they just won't let it rest. They demand over and over again to have an explaination of why Cheney didn't publically announce that he had an accident.

Well here's the answer my friends to all you people who don't understand why he didn't go to the media. You must be kind of dumb so I'll explain in the form of an analogy. Imagine for a minute that it was yourself that accidently shot someone. Would you immediately run to the phone and shout the news to the world or would you just quietly let the news take care of itself and maybe hope for a miracle that it wouldn't be a big news story. That's what I would have done and so would you.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Happy Hallmark Day!

Here are some love poems to Tracie, written in the "Becky Style".

Tracie she's a babe!
Her eyes are blue like my camera bag,
Her hair is brown like A&W Root Beer,
Tracie, what a babe!

Tracie she's a babe!
Her skin is soft like hand lotion,
Her jokes are funny like a dog wearing boots,
Tracie, what a babe!

Tracie she's a babe!
She likes to sleep in like a cat,
Her smile is nice like a chocolate bar,
Tracie what a babe!

Tracie she's a babe!
Her love is better than ice cream,
She's better than anything else that I've tried,
Tracie she's a babe!

I love Tracie!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Hockey Time


lord stanley's cup
Originally uploaded by PictureTakinDevil.
Ice Hockey, that is.

When you talk about hockey with an Australian, you have to specify that you are refering to ice hockey. If in your discussion you forget to specify this and the Aussie - detecting your Canadian accent - asks if you are refering to ice hockey, try to resist replying "Is there any other kind?". I've made this mistake a few times, only to be told each time by a bloke with a straight face that I could have been talking about field hockey.

Field Hockey?? Are you kidding me??

Field hockey is field hockey, hockey is hockey.

I feel sorry for Australians when it comes to sports...I really do.

Now that the winter Olympics have started, I find myself more than ever missing my home country. As I was watching the opening ceremonies of the olympics last night, I noticed that the cameras panned slowly over the Australian team, discussing each member briefly, and then quickly scanned over the rest of the teams. I caught a quick glance at the Canadian flag but that was it. No mention of the Canadians, when they would be playing, who to watch for or anything. In fact, beyond what I just said, the Australians didn't get much more coverage either. They quickly cut from the olympic opening ceremony to tennis doubles on one channel and cricket on another.

Cricket and Tennis? I'd rather watch curling any day.

I think they just don't care about winter olympics. Weirdos.

I looked up the ICE hockey schedule for the coming weeks, and I'm really excited to cheer on my country. I only hope the ICE hockey games aren't preempted by re-runs of Home and Away or The Alice.

Oh, Canada.
I miss you, eh?

Attacked by Sharks



Tracie and I were at a beach towards the north end of the Perth suburbs when were were viciously attacked by a pair of sharks hiding in the waves. They looked just like this only, bigger with more teeth and hiding in the waves.

I was about waist deep in the water when I saw them about 30 feet away. I shouted to Tracie, "Look at that!"

She was only about knee deep, and we both high tailed it out of the water. It turns out that they weren't really sharks, only a pair of dolphins, but it gave us a little scare especially since there is a beach on the south end of town that has been closed because of a herd of about six sharks that have been hanging around.

The police have been patroling down there to make sure no one goes into the water. It's not a popular tourist beach down there, they use it mostly as an exercise beach for horses to go in the water and for people to walk their dogs.

The thought of sharks in the area has been in the back of my mind for the last few days.

-Gary

Saturday, February 11, 2006

People are funny

There's a movie showing in theatres called "Brokeback mountain. I wouldn't go within a mile of it myself and I advise you to avoid it at all costs as well because of it's filthy content. That fact notwithstanding I have read that the beautiful background scenery in it would just about melt your heart. The story took place in the State of Wyoming. However---the movie was filmed in Canada. Droves of people have been phoning to find out where it was filmed so that they when they take their holidays they can go there to enjoy the scenery first hand. Somehow, when they hear it was filmed in Canada, they let it go in one ear and out the other and say well, "we're heading for Wyoming this summer. Figure that one out.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Four Things

Four jobs I’ve had

Used Golf Ball Seller
Photographer
Bank Teller
Office Temp

Four movies I can watch over and over

Clueless
A League of Their Own
Back to the Future
Office Space

Four places I have lived

Medicine Hat, Canada
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Perth, Australia
Calgary, Canada

Four TV shows I love to watch

Boston Legal
Prison Break
Deal or No Deal (Gameshow in Australia)
The Simpsons

Four places I have been on vacation

Tasmania
Hong Kong
Singapore
Australia

Four of my favorite dishes

Pizza
Balsamic Chicken
Steak
Tandori Chicken

Four websites I visit daily

jeffmilner.com
Flickr
Slashdot
BoingBoing

Four places I would rather be right now

Medicine Hat, Canada
Calgary, Canada
Any dinner table eating
In bed

-Gary Milner

Monday, February 06, 2006

A Brilliant Editorial

From "We are all Danes Now" an opinion piece on boston.com.

HINDUS CONSIDER it sacrilegious to eat meat from cows, so when a Danish supermarket ran a sale on beef and veal last fall, Hindus everywhere reacted with outrage. India recalled its ambassador to Copenhagen, and Danish flags were burned in Calcutta, Bombay, and Delhi. A Hindu mob in Sri Lanka severely beat two employees of a Danish-owned firm, and demonstrators in Nepal chanted: ''War on Denmark! Death to Denmark!"In many places, shops selling Dansk china or Lego toys were attacked by rioters, and two Danish embassies were firebombed.

Read the rest of the article.

-Gary

Magpie Caught

I heard this story from a 13 year-old kid.

He said, ''I found a magpie caught in a fence. It's wing was dislocated and it couldn't get itself free. I used a pair of sissors to get it free. He was stuck in there for quite awhile. After I got him untangled, I popped his wing back into place. He couldn't fly for awhile but soon he flew away. A little while later he flew back and landed at my feet where he gave me the fly from a broken zipper. It was very shiney."

I suspect it was the magpie's prized possession. The moral of the story is be kind to everyone.

-Gary