Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Sureshot Presents - Reviewed

Johnny Boy, Italian lad living in Japan reviews Sureshot Presents.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Cellar, seriously

Pretty much every friday, for the past 2 years whenever i was asked what am i doing on the weekend, i replied "Working on the cellar". Last month i finished it.

When we bought the house there was a door that went to a small cavity under the house. It was about 3 feet high, 6 feet wide and 10 feet deep. We used it as garden tool storage. I don't have any 'before photos', ok I do but they involve me in my PJs finding xmas presents.

I had my wine stored at my mums' place, but with her retiring i didn't trust her with my collection. So I started digging. Or chipping. The "soil" was essentially clay and rock and the area was so confined that i couldn't swing an pick. I started with a hammer and chisel and then slowly progressed to get a pick happening. I'd chisel and pick the dirt lose and scoop it in to buckets left over from grouting the bathroom and make a pile in the backyard.

18 months into the dig, The Big D visited and had a look and said "Marko, a hammer drill would make easier". So after a $50 hammer drill purchase i discovered in 4 weekends i could dig about the same as it took 9 months.
1) The floor to dining room, which i swear is still perfectly level, I don't care what the spirit level says.
2)Em had an awesome idea of using perspex/pvc sheet to show how much got dug and the cool dirt. All the supports were welded by me.
3)I removed a brickwall that was supporting the dining room floor and replaced it with a big heavy beam and posts. Also where i taught myself welding.
4)The height of the original dirt floor. I pretty much dug about 5 tonnes of dirt.
5)Paved floor courtesy of Emma because I had a dummyspit due to her not being able to decide on the paver pattern.

All in all the space is about 3x4 metres with 40% shelving. The wine is all databased and its location is documented.

1) The crappy chinese lanterns were not my idea. I have to fix the lighting and electrical (get rid of the cord wrapped around the beam and so forth) but electrical and car stuff bore me to tears and i just can't make the effort to learn. Plus its hard to kill yourself welding, plumbing, tiling, sheet metaling, etc but having been shocked 3 times working in construction, i'd rather leave it to others.
2)Cheap MDF + left over timber floor stain = sweet finish
3)The ethnic artifacts were my idea
What you don't see is i had to mix and pour 350 kilos of cement to act as a step from the small door to the floor. You can't see the bull horns above the door either.

So what do you do with five tonnes of dirt? Apparently landscape the backyard (my idea was have a big pile of dirt).

Here's me getting rid of one bucket, it was followed by another 150 or so. The tree in the foreground got chopped down - it was only 3 metres from the house and over 10 metres high. So it had to go any way, it also meant that i spent 3 weekends chopping wood.

This is the "after" picture. Em's comment is "The after shot is supposed to look better than the before shot". 5 Tonnes wasn't enough to fill the space so i had to dig another 1-2 tonne from the bottom of the block and carry it up (our block drops 11 metres from the front to the back).
1)Where the tree was, now replaced by a wonky clothesline that doesn't matter how much cement or welding i do to still wonks.
2)It took 3 months (12 weekends) to build all this. The timber sleepers have pins through them that hold it all together. Each hole for the pin took about 45 minutes to drill. To save time i didn't bother putting pins right in the corner. When i put in all the dirt the corner subsequently split. So in an effort to save 3 hours of work, i had to spend 3 days digging the sides out, rebracing it with crappy looking strap and refilling it all.

And that's that project done.
Next the Deck. Or stairs from the road to the house. Or amphitheater and firepit/lamb spit.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Rosa rose parla amore - Nonna (1994)

Unfortunately a death in the family can bring the worst of people, but positively, the very best as well.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Killeroo commits Homicide in the City

I don't know why but i "found" screen captures of Killeroo #2 appearance in last monday's (8/10/07) episode of City Homicide (all of 1.5 seconds worth).





Whilst I swear I didn't watch the episode, from what i scanned the presence of the comic makes no sense - its owned by a 50 year old cripple/serial killer. Actually maybe it does make sense.

Didn't Killeroo also appear in Water Rats or Stingers? Or was that The Watch?

Monday, October 08, 2007

This should go in my facebook question thing, but all the same

If i wanted to buy cool tshirts online from Australian sources i would look where?
(Please don't say google)

Friday, October 05, 2007

Red J's Horoscope says Gemini

Lying in the Gutters' reports that local artist Jon "Red J" Sommariva is working with Jay Faeber on a book for Image called Gemini.

And it does look nice

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Eating Steve with an Egg; New Australian Graphic Novel released

Marc J Schmidt, a New South Wales resident, who previously released the cute Egg Story in 2004 through SLG is releasing a new GN this October titled Eating Steve.

For some reason i thought it was about lesbians but its about zombies. Here's a preview.

Your comic shop probably didn't order it so go ask for it, then wait a couple of weeks.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Grants do happen to comic folk

Congratulations to Liz/Azuhru for getting grant cash money to fly to the San Diego ComicCon. Once there she'll have to do stuff like schmooze editors and most likely carouse with other creator, I look forward to reading her articles on Ozcomics.com.