Red Hot Chili Peppers

Well the Red Hot Chili Peppers are my favourite band in the world (still). I'm not going to say they are the best or anything like that as I know I like them for more than just their musical talents, but they are extremely talented musicians.

My first encounter with the Peppers came in my last year of high school. I was shopping with Kim and maybe someone else for CDs for Uma's birthday (we were getting her a Live album) and anyway I decided to buy myself a CD at the same time, I was tossing up between the Distance to Here (Live) and Californication (Peppers) just because I'd heard Scar Tissue on the radio and been teaching myself to play it on the guitar. Anyway I chose Californication and fell head over heels in love with the album, and soon the band as well. (Don't worry I've got the Distance to Here now as well).

So I was totally hooked and I needed more. Fast. My next purchase was Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Well actually my Daddy bought it for me :-) However, he wouldn't let me have it until after bursary exams were over.... but I made it through and then got it and LOVED it! It is still probably my favourite album ever. I'm glad that back when I was building my Peppers CD collection I was poor because it meant I really thoroughly listened to an album before moving onto the next one. So yeah then I got One Hot Minute for Christmas, and the following year finished up the collection with Mother's Milk, Freaky Styley, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Uplift Mofo Party Plan. I now have a lot more than that too.

Interesting fact: one of my requirements for dating someone is they have to not hate the Chili Peppers. When I met Darren I asked him two questions before giving him my phone number
1) Do you drive, and do you have a car?
2) Do you hate the Chili Peppers?
Luckily for him he passed both questions :-) I'm not shallow really, but it would just be too hard to make the relationship work if either of those two were the wrong answer.

Side note: I had a wonderful evening last night. I went out with Fenia and Klava. We went to Dennys for dinner which was ok, and then to the Palms where we did a little shopping before going to see House of Wax. Which was a strange movie. It was kind of really stupid, but also good as well. So I'm very confused as to whether to recommend it or not.

:-) M

Led Zeppelin

It's lucky that today is Led Zeppelin because well I'm too tired to write anything much, and Led Zeppelin really doesn't need anything written about them! They are the only one of my top 5 I haven't seen live and never will (for obviously reasons). They are so so so so so great, and I just can't emphasize that enough. They are also a band I love completely without any emotional biases towards them. It's almost like a fact that they are brilliant, not just my opinion.

Also I have all the albums so if anyone needs to borrow any let me know.

:-) M

The Mars Volta

Number 3 The Mars Volta

Well since I can't be bothered actually going and looking up facts for each of these bands, I'm just going to say what I think it right and it might not be - but that does not mean I am lying! Ok?

The Mars Volta are an absolutely mind-blowing band. They are relatively young compared to the other bands on my top 5 (in terms of how long they've been around, not how old they are, although they are also personally younger than ther others but that's not really the point).

I first came across the Mars Volta when they were touring with the Chili Peppers which I think happened in 2002 but I can't be bothered coutning backwards on my fingers but anyway they were getting booed of the stage by dumb ass Chili Peppers fans. John apparently loved the band so of course I had to listen. And they were great. When I first heard them they didn't have an album out, just the Tremulant EP with 3 songs on it, and they were awesome. Their music is very alternative, um hard to explain, there's a technical term for it but I can't remember. It's not soft anyway, and has a lot of Latin influences as the band is from Southern America, and one of the members was born in Puerto Rico.

Another thing woth noting about the Mars Volta is they were absolutely MIND BLOWING live. I was so incredibly lucky to see them twice. Once in their own concert where they played an amazing set which was their first album from start to finish with some jams and new bits mixed in. It was the more incredible thing to watch, the singer Cedric really put his entire heart into the show. The second time was the day after at the Big Day Out, and despite that and the necessity for a shorter set they still did themselves extremely proud.

:-) M

Jane's Addiction

Number 4..... Jane's Addiction. Now Jane's Addiction are a very awesome band. I got into Jane's Addiction not too long ago, probably back in 2000. At that time I'd been a big Red Hot Chili Peppers fan (yes the Red Hot Chili Peppers are giong to come up a lot this week) and had always had it in my mind to have a listen to Jane's for a couple of reasons:

1) Dave Navarro who joined the Peppers for 1 album (One Hot Minute) was the guitarist in Jane's Addiction
2) The Peppers spoke highly of Jane's Addiction and respected them as artists... so much so that Flea (from the Peppers) toured with Jane's Relapse tour in 1997.

So I guess by 2000 I finally got around to giving them a proper listen. Appallingly I can't even remember which album I got first! Oh hang on I think it was actually Kettle Whistle. Actually as an aside I believe I may even have gotten into Porno for Pyros before Jane's Addiction which is odd, but I have a feeling that's what happened. You're probably all totally confused, or bored and no longer reading. But Porno for Pyros was a band lead by Perry Farell of Jane's Addiction and I remember absolutely falling head over heels with their song "Tahitian Moon" - I mean I would have married that song and had 10,000 of it's babies.

So what's my point? No really, I've forgotten my point. Oh that's right my point is Porno might have been another reason I got into Jane's. But anyway Jane's Addiction are a brilliant Alternative Rock band from the late 80s and 90s. Their song Jane Says is one of my all time favourites. And they sadly broke up, did a reunion tour in 1997, reformed in 2000 and something (maybe 2003) with a new bassist and I was SO SO SO extremely lucky to see them at the Big Day Out. And then they broke up again. 3 members of the 2000-version of the band: Dave Navarro, Chris Chaney and Steven Perkins have joined with Steve Isaacs to form a new band The Panic Chanel. Album due out this year (fingers crossed!).

And Dave Navarro is really hot and looks like Darren. Except Darren refuses to dress up like Dave in fishnets, a feather boa, and some eyeliner to accentuate those gorgeous lashes of his. Humph.

:-) M

Live

Live are really the reason I even decided to do this top 5 thing. You see my car doesn't have a CD player, it only has a tape deck and I have just a few tapes that I listen to in it. For the past 6 months I've been listening to a RHCP mix over and over and over and over, and so in the weekend I changed tapes and put in Live. Now the reason I just happen to have Live tapes is because when I started listening to Live in about 1998 I didn't have a CD player, and also I copied them all from Uma. So anyway I put in this tape, and it sounded really bad for awhile because my tape player sucks... but then it sorted itself out and then I heard the first chord of Lakini's Juice (a live version) and I realised how much I love and miss Live.

I went through a stage (of a few years) of not respecting them as much and consequently not listening to them. This was in the wake of their 5th and 6th albums which I didn't like as much as their first 4. But now I've realised that I do actually love V (their 5th album) and how awesome their earlier albums are - so they jumped right up from about 12th back to the top 5. Lucky them.

Now Live are brilliant Live. Haha. I've seen them thrice and although the first performance was far superior to the second and third each time I was suitably impressed with their stage show. Incidentally I rank them probably 6th or 7th for their Live performance.

1st Red Hot Chili Peppers (no question, I'm not being biased, they were amazing).
2nd Mars Volta
3rd REM (very professional)
4th Jane's Addiction (would have been higher but I didn't feel a huge amount of chemistry)

And probably some other bands I can't remember right now. I'm not a big Metallica fan but I do respect them... they were awesome at the Big Day Out, and played an extended set, and came on early to fill the stage after the dickhead Strokes were too drunk to play their set. I think that's pretty awesome of a band to do... normally bands dick around keeping you waiting for ages, don't even think about them coming on early! Also in my performance bad books are the Dandy Warhols... which is a band I love... but they really sucked live. Like they just seemed like they weren't at all ready, and they actually kept screwing up.

Anyway Live are great. I don't believe they'll be around too much longer... although I could be terribly wrong. They have so many songs I love and I can't even think of one single one to say... just listen to the whole Secret Samadhi album (pictured above).

:-) M

This Week

Hello everyone this week I'm doing my top 5. So each day I'm going to post about one of my 5 favourite bands. Please note these are not my favourite recording artists necessarily, I'm only considering fully fledged bands at this stage. Enjoy :-)

Humph

I have spent my entire morning at work tracking down a critical bug that was reported to me, that happened not to be a bug at all! Now I have mixed emotions about this.

a) I am very happy it is not a bug, because if it was I would have written it, and I was so sure it was working correctly.

b) I am very annoyed because I am VERY busy today and want that two hours back!

That is all. I guess I will look on the bright side and thinking about the fact that the system is working all nice and correctly.
Hope you are having a wonderful wonderful day.

:-) M

Check these out

For Girls
For Guys

Apparently a new ad campaign in Britain, I think they're pretty cool :-)

Frazzled

This is me. I am frazzled. Thanks for the image Kon :-)

Bad news

For me anyway.

Tonight is finally the night Andrew is making tuna (although Kirsty cooked very yummy tea last night) and I'm not even going to be home for tea! Oh cruel fate!

That's all I wanted to say. Oh and my new shampoo smells really nice (it's Garnier Fructus or something) and also Adam is an updating god at the moment!

:-) M

ps Nick (or others) if you have any questions feel free to ask, it is ask Mindy day.

:-)

For everybody who doesn't already know this is Darren. He gets a nice big picture because he's so tall, actually he's not really that tall at all. He just gets a big picture anyway. It's one of the perks of being the blogmaster's boyfriend ;-) Anyway I just thought I'd put a picture of him up because he's gorgeous and I adore him. And his eyelashes are so beautiful and I thought I should share that with everyone. Plus he's been such a wonderful boyfriend lately so there you go. Actually everyone who does know him can just skip this. So this picture is actually from a year ago just before we went to a ball together, so that's why he's nicely dressed up. Anyway Darren and I have been together for um just over 1.5 years now. He's a builder, and he likes Kung Fu and watching movies and watching Kung Fu movies, and building stuff, and Stargate, and cornchips... and me! And we have our ups and downs but they're getting less uppy and downy as time goes on and evening out a bit :-)

So there you go now there's been pictures on my blog of two of the four main men of my life. They are: Dad, Darren, Andrew, and Nick. And you can all see Nick by going to his website (just on the right there). And well Andrew - one day I'll get a picture of him. Also on that topic Andrew makes YUMMY tuna pasta bake and I love it so much that I get hungry just thinking about it, and he's making it for tea tonight and so now I am forever in his debt.

Also I'd just like to say everyone who doesn't like/love Stargate you should watch it because it's great. Although I know that's a bit hard as it's not on TV at the moment. But I can probably hook you up ;) Also I watched this week's episode of Scrubs last night... I think it's the last of the season sob sob sob :( Anyway it was pretty funny you should all make sure you watch it when it's on tomorrow.

:-) M

Ecademys

(This is me and Kirsty dancing. She was a great partner! I'll have to teach her to lead tho so I can be the girl once in a while).


(Picture is: Me, Kim and Kirsty).

Well as I said before I had a wonderful weekend. Sorry for those impatient ones that I didn't post earlier, but I have to do work while I'm at work. It's a strange concept I know. But anyway now it's lunchtime, and I'm eating sandwiches.

Firstly, I moved back into the flat on Thursday night I think. Kirsty's lovely friends Janet and Hamish are staying with us so it's a nice full flat at the moment. Actually I haven't been there a hell of a lot anyway. But I'll be there tonight!

Then on Friday night went round to spend some time with Darren. We watched the end of the Labyrinth, and it was super! I was so glad there was a happy ending (I wasn't anticipating that at all! ;-). Then on Saturday we slept till after noon. It's been SO long since I've done that, it was so great! Then we watched The Rock which I hadn't seen or heard much about and I was pleasantly surprised to find it was an excellent movie. I would highly recommend it. Also it had Dr Cox off Scrubs on it, he always turns up in funny places.

And of course Saturday night was the Ecademys. Which was the social for Kim and Kirsty's work that I spoke of last week (they work for Enviroment Canterbury, or ECan, thus the name). Thanks SO SO SO SO SO much Kim for taking me. It was such a cool fun night. There were yummy snacks all night, and three out of the four cocktails they served throughout the evening were nice. Plus lots of dancing! Very fun. And a jukebox. I'm so getting one of those! And ask Kirsty if you want to know what the funniest thing said that night was ;-) Oh and thanks to Hamish and Janet for picking us up after, although I'm sure it was worth it to hear the amusing postfunction babble.

Sunday Kirsty and I FINALLY got to watch some more Stargate (it had been some time). And later that night Darren and I watched Dodgeball and part of Alien vs Predator... we'd seen both before but Dodgeball is such a funny movie!!!

Ok bye :-) M

Update coming...

Well I had a great weekend. I'm going to update again probably at lunch in 4 or so hours because I want to write a bit and I don't have time right now. Also ifI'm lucky Kirsty will send me some photos off her digital camera. :-) M

Not much to report

I don't have much to say, but thought I'd write anyway just because everyone would probably miss me terribly otherwise.

The worst possible thing happened at work yesterday. Well some background first. Our client is in England which is quite a long way away from here. Also they are in quite a different time zone, a completely different one in fact. So when it's 8.35 in the morning here, it's 9.35 at night there (the day before). Or something like that. Now this has some great benefits, where deadlines are concerned etc. It also has some big downsides. The major one being that when they are all happily using the system we have made for them we are all tucked up in bed, or at least no where near work or our computers (well I'm not anyway). So if something goes terribly wrong at say, 2pm in their working day, that makes it 3am here, and so someone in our team needs to be woken up to go sort it out. The terrible terrible news is, after 8 months working here my manager has decided I'm now ready to be put on the phonelist of people to call. URGH!

Tomorrow is Kim and Kirsty's work social which I'm attending. Yay! Should be tons of fun. And tonight hopefully I'm watching the end of the labyrinth... very exciting!

:-) M

Answers

1. I want to know if women lie about their beast size like men lie about their height? (BHN)

Dear Nick, What a cryptic question. Would I be right in thinking I should substitute "beast" with "breast" and "height"... with... er... um. Well anyway first I will answer your question as it reads. I have never lied about my beast size. I have no reason to, my beast is of perfectly average size, and though his size if a little hard to tell as he is covered with purple fur (with orange spots) you can pretty much tell how big he is just by looking.

Now to answer the question assuming you mean breasts. Well. Hmm. To be honest I am not the right woman to answer this question. Instantly I would said "no that's a stupid thing to do because all anyone needs to do is look at you and they can tell you're lying", but then I thought about it a little more. And I realised that some women do buy those big padded bras, or those water ones and even if they don't directly lie about their breast size, that is sort of an indirect lie. So I guess my answer is: woman who are happy with their breast size don't, woman who aren't happy and want to be bigger might. Sorry I can't give a more decisive answer than that.

Labyrinth

What a cool movie!

I can't actually remember if I ever saw this in its entirity when I was a child, I remember being quite scared of the goblins (understandably) but I had seen some of it. Anyway Darren and I started watching this last night (on loan from Amy, thankyou!) but we're only about halfway through so no one tell me what happens in the end. Also I've been thinking imagine if they made that movie today! It would get anihilated by critics! And who would be able to replace David Bowie? Hehe maybe Will Smith, or Robbie Williams... somehow no one seems right! These days it would be much easier to have a goblin queen... and the role would obviously have to go to Christina!

Um what other news have I? Well I'm moving back to the flat soon. I think they've been punished quite enough by my absense. Also I'm concerned about my plants. And I think my family has had quite enough of me, the lucky things!

:-) M

Guitar

I thought it was about time I showed off my guitar to everybody. Isn't it stunning? Ok so that picture is not of my actual gutiar, but it looks exactly the same. It's so asthetically pleasing. So is my watch. But that's another story. Guitars are just nice looking though aren't they? Anyway so that's my guitar, it's beautiful and I love it.

Sorry I'm late today I had to spend quite some time defrosting my car. It was really hard to fit it in the microwave. Haha. But yeah big thumbs up on the great frost mother nature, it's a beauty!

I don't have much other news from Monday night.

Kim and I are goign to her work's social on Saturday this week which is going to be SUPER FUN! It's also Kirsty's work, so she will be there too! The theme is the Academy Awards or something along those lines so I get to dress up all beautiful and look gorgeous. I'll post pics, I promise.

:-) M

Akaroa

Well I had a lovely lovely weekend. It wasn't the most eventful weekend ever it was just nice. Kim and I just spent the weekend relaxing, listening to music, chatting, eating, walking, and I worked on my lamp and Kim started a puzzle. So yeah it was really great - just what I needed.

Anyway these aren't the most exciting photos in the world (I could have posted about 20 pictures of stationary yachts so just be glad I didn't do that).

This is the beautiful sunset we saw driving home. I guess the picture isn't that beautiful, but it does prove that I saw a beautiful sunset, even if you can't! And you can see the lovely side mirror of Kim's car.

This is Kim when we walked up to the monument. Sorry you can't see her face, but trust me it's her.


This is the view from the balcony - I took this picture is to show that it snowed! Look at the snow on the hills, very pretty. It was still there when we drove home around 5.

Hope you all had a good weekend too!

:-) M

Hello

Sometimes people suck. I'm of course referring to the thing in London which is very sad, and also the fact that someone has walked past my car and bent the back windscreen wiper so it no longer wipes. :( But about the London thing, I won't say too much as I don't really know much about what happened, just big hugs to friends and families of any victims. :)

Sorry there's no picture today. I know you've probably all come to expect dazzling pictures on my blog and now I've gone and totally let you down. Don't I suck. Oh well, hopefully I'll make up for it on Monday after my trip to Akaroa.

Maybe by then my lamp will be finished. I'll definitely put a picture of it up when it's done! It's looking so stunning. Which isn't surprising considering I was the one who made it. Well recovered it.

What else to say? Um I ran out of vitamin Bs and now I have three ulcers which is very sad for me. So now the good news is I've got some more but these ones are weird, you have to have like 5 tablets a day. Which is lots!

So yeah Kim and I are having pizza at Mum and Dad's tonight... then we're off to Akaroa. We're going to take our guitars so we might write a new song! Hehe it was about 5 1/2 years ago we wrote our last song together then. Gosh that makes me sound old. The song was brilliant, except it had some ungrammatical spannish in it and it was hard to sing without cracking up. I can't even remember what it was called now. Oh well.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Weekend Away!

Yay! I'm going away for the weekend with Kim! It came completely out of the blue, just an idea she had yesterday. We're going to Akaroa (pictured above) but since it's pretty much the middle of winter it may not be quite as sunny as the picture. But that's ok. I'm really looking forward to it. I am a person who loves weekends away... used to go all the time and haven't been for ages! So it should be good. Now you haven't gone mad, it's still Thursday, this is all happening tomorrow. Unfortunately due to the late notice and little planning we couldn't get everyone to come so it'll jsut be the two of us, but we're thinking we'll go again soon!

Um also the final of Lost was on last night! Woo! Although I didn't watch it. This was for three reasons:

1) Andrew rang me right at the beginning and talking to him was so much more fun. Haha. Claire and I played the whole "Is your fridge running? - well you'd better go and catch it" prank. Mum and Dad have decided I'm childish. Duh!
2) And it finished at 10.30 and that's a whole hour after my bedtime.
3) Amy was sick and wasn't watching it with me anyway.

But I'm watching it tonight! Yay!

Today I'm giong to try really hard at work. I've been having bad afternoons, getting headaches and losing my concentration. Maybe coz of the coke thing.

:-) M

Tattoo

Hello!

Everyone look I got a tattoo! I think most people know by now but some may not. It's still quite new, only a few weeks ok. Isn't it wonderful? I love it so much!!! The photo makes it look quite chunky but it's a lot more delicate than that.

It is the kanji symbol for peace/tranquility/low/contented etc. Ahhh isn't that nice? Lara says that in mandarin it's pronounced "an" which is cool too.

And yes it did hurt. But not a lot. It only took a very short time, so there wasn't long to think about the pain. And I think ones on the inner wrist hurt more than other places... so if anyone is thinking about getting a tattoo I definitely would say don't let the thought of pain stop you! Although I did almost faint afterwards... I think I must have accidentally held my breath as I was trying to keep still.

Um what else to say? It's great isn't it? Well obviously I think it is so it is highly doubtful anyone out there will be able to change my mind about that. And even if they do there's not a lot I can do about it so please don't try! ;-)

Today is ask Mindy day so if you have any questions let me know!

Love from :-) M

Computer

comp
Originally uploaded by Omfu.

In addition to my earlier post here is a picture of the computer in question. Piece of crap!

But in other news, my digital camera works, and to a standard I am satisfied with (it only cost $40). :-)

VERY FRUSTRATED

Hello everyone! I have decided I officially have the crappiest computer that exists. Now I have this picture that I took at home and download and anyway. Well actually I can't be bothered telling the story I'm so pissed off. It's actually quite pathetic. My CD Rom doesn't work. And when you try and use it it screams... honestly it makes such a loud noise that I don't know what's going on. And now after just trying the floppy... well that makes a noise like a typewriter for about 7 minutes before not working at all. Great eh?

This is my work computer by the way.

Humph.

Happy 4th of July!

I forgot for all the American's today is Independence Day. Happy Independence Day! Hehe. That's so funny. We're not even independent in New Zealand yet! How strange. For anyone who is not a New Zealander this means almost nothing. A representative of the Queen (who is a New Zealander anyway) has to sign each law that parliament passes but they never ever ever refuse to... and um we still celebrate Queen's Birthday. Oh and we get to go in the Commonwealth games. But other than that you wouldn't even know.

Also I thought I might occasionally add funny stargate quotations: Here's one:

"I would prefer not to consume bovine lactose at any temperature" - Teal'c after Sam suggests he has some warm milk. Hahaha. Hilarious!

:-) M

Funny Picture

I'm too tired to write much. Ok so here is a funny picture. I found it on someone else's blog. The detail is awesome isn't it? Hahaha

Bye! :-)