Easter in December...And Skele-Woman

You know, at the beginning of 2005, I was shocked to discover the shops putting out their Easter wares in JANUARY. That was even skipping Valentines's Day in the grand "list of stupid hallmark days". But get this, Christmas is barely over, 2005 isn't even finished yet (not for another 14 hours or so), and already they have stock on the shelves for Easter, 2006!



Easter isn't for another FOUR MONTHS, people! Give us a break! Maybe it's just further proof that the world is ruled by the almighty dollar (or Yen, Euro, Rial, Rupiah or whatever). Not to mention, that you can buy chocolate any time you like...but apparently we all have to buy it specially shaped in egg form for Easter.

On another strange note... Skele-Woman. I don't know this woman. But I saw her while doing last minute New Year's Eve drinks-and-nibblies shopping. This woman is thin. And I don't mean trim and toned.. I mean "skin and bones" thin. I don't know whether its a medical condition, or whether she's just seriously anorexic or has problems judging proportions, but she is SERIOUSLY in need of a few jumbo steak dinners. Take a look for yourselves!



*Shudder!* But hey, give her some red eyes and a massive gun, and she'll do alright for an audition for Terminator 4...lol.

Sleeping In An Oven?

Well, *nearly*. It's just gone 10pm, and it's nearly 33 degrees C in my bedroom. That's about the same temperature as it was when I woke up this morning, and 4 degrees cooler than it was at the hottest point of today.

It's the temperature on the left:



Seriously, NOT HAPPY JAN! The other night I woke up drenched in a pool of my own sweat with a head headache at 3:30am, and managed to get back to sleep after administering some Panadol Rapid (there's a plug for the Panadol people), and while I would love to leave my window open at night to let some freakin' cooler air in, seeing as I have no SCREEN on my window, if I leave my window open, I'll get devoured by freakin' mosquitoes and God knows what other tropical deadly bugs. It's happened before. Once I forgot to close my window, and woke up the next morning with a mosquito enjoying a morning snack on my shoulder. Not fun. =\ I did get into a habit of sleeping with my door ajar while my one housemate and her kids were on holidays, but they came back yesterday, and let's just say I don't fancy the idea of a 4yr old being scared by Frostilicus Au Naturel. *whistles* Kids are inquisitive by nature, and while she IS a sweetie, I'd hate to scare her like that!

Anyhow, on a non-ranting note, here's some sunset pictures I took ... the clouds showed up around 4:30-ish...but alas, FAILED TO DELIVER any cool, refreshing, relieving rain. Dammit. We had that on Christmas day, too. There were storms all around us, but we got maybe half a bucket of rain out of the lot, and no storm activity. Can we say "gipped on Xmas Day", kiddies? I thought so too.

But anyhoo, this was this evening...







The pictures are a tad grainy as It was getting dark.. but I think that adds a bit of charm to them ;)

Also today, I was at Subway getting dinner, as my housemate had run herself ragged this afternoon and just refused to cook dinner (which in this heat, I don't really blame her), and as I was walking out of Subway with my Italian BMT and Green Tea, their stereo was playing the beginning of "Similar Features" by Melissa Etheridge. I haven't heard any of her stuff for ages, and I looked it up when I got home and discovered it was one of her first songs, wayyyy back in 1988. Wow, that seems like forever ago now (Damn, I'm getting old!), but anyway, That's one of my song pics for the day, which leads me to Melissa's "Like The Way I Do", which I think is my all-time favourite one of her songs. The last time I heard it was at Options in Spring Hill, in January (the night of the famous Frostilicus Ankle Spraining), and let's just say, it was a sing-along with my friends and 100 other drunkish lesbians. :)) But that's the last time I remember hearing that, after a really shitty week, I was really out of it, and I was singing my little lungs out to it along with everyone else.

Peace n stuff,

~Frostilicus~

Operation Eden

I was listening to a podcast this morning, Accident Hash #78, and mentioned was the Operation Eden website. This is a photojournal about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's a collection of photographs, articles and tales from survivors of the hurricane, who are trying now to rebuild their lives. Whoever reads this blog, check it out, it's well worth a read.

~FF~

Boxing Day Fry-Up

Deciding to have a bit of a fry-up for my Boxing Day breakfast, I made use of what was left of my Xmas dinner as well as some mushrooms that were just begging to be cooked. I fried it up in some butter and olive oil....yes i know not entirely healthy, but oh well, who really decides to be healthy at Christmas?

Anyhoo, here 'tis cooking:



And here it is in all it's cooked goodness...



Mmmm... Tasty! I added a bit of ham and cut the potatoes into smaller pieces so they would cook through, and it was basically slow-cooked so everything had time to brown nicely. I'm particular with mushrooms, I like to cook them in butter so they are sweet and tasty ;)

Enjoy!

~Frostilicus~

Bah Humbug Dinner, Frostilicus Style!

Having virtually no housemates home this christmas, I decided to not exactly celebrate, but to at least make myself a nice meal. So I decided to roast a pork fillet and some veges. Knowing literally nothing about roasting anything, I found a recipe off the net that sounded do-able. And of course, me being me, I adapted it to suit my tastes.

Bits and Pieces:

1 500g pork fillet
75g blue cheese
100g Philadelphia cream cheese
3 tsp Gourmet Garden Basil paste
1 Bunch Asparagus
4 potatoes
10 mushrooms
1tsp Gourmet Garden Garlic Paste
1 head garlic
Olive Oil
Butter
Mixed Herbs
Paprika
Black Pepper
Skewers
Sholder Ham (optional)
3 cloves fresh garlic

Here's what you do:

Filling:

In a small bowl mix together the blue cheese and cream cheese, along with some garlic, until combined. Then add 2tsp basil paste and mix in, along with some black pepper and paprika (this is to your taste). Slice and dice 2 mushrooms and add to the mixture. Cover and chill. This will make enough to stuff the fillet and the potatoes.

Meat:

Make a cut in the pork fillet all the way along. open the fillet, and then spoon the cheese mixture into the cavity. Close the cavity using the skewers, if this is not possible lengthwise, you can fold the fillet over in half and do it that way (that's the way I did it, anyway, because I fucked it up to begin with lol). Make slits in the meaty part of the pork and stuff with smushed fresh garlic. (That is, you flatten the clove of garlic with your knife)

Vegies:

Take the asparagus and cut about 1 inch off the bottom of the stem. Boil some water and pour over the asparagus in a container. Cut the 4 potatoes in half and scoop out a small area in the middle of each half. Stuff the cheese mixture into the hollowed out area. Wash the mushrooms and cut them in half. Peel the outer skin off the head of garlic and slice the top off it so that the top of the cloves are exposed.

Putting it all together:

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Take a large oven tray, and drizzle some olive oil on the bottom. (At this point I sliced off some shoulder ham and put it on the bottom of the tray where I was going to put my fillet, but this is optional. I only did it cuz when I sliced into my fillet i fucked it up and nearly sliced it in half lol) Place your skewered fillet into the tray. Drain the asparagus and place around the fillet. Rub the mushrooms in some butter and arrange around the fillet. Arrange the potatoes around as well, and put the head of garlic in one of the corners. I STILL had cheese mixture left over, so I put some on top of the fillet as well as over some of the vegies. Sprinkle herbs over everything, and then drizzle some olive oil as well, making sure that the garlic has olive oil drizzled on it.

Here's the before shot:



I cooked it for about an hour and a half, by which time everything as cooked perfectly....except the potatoes. I'm told potatoes are tricky to cook at the best of times, and they were still a bit too firm for my liking. I'm one of those people who likes my potatoes all soft. Here's the after shot:



MMM.... tasty! The asparagus was a melt-in-your-mouth consistency.. the meat was nice and tender and the mushrooms were perfect too. And for dessert I had some pudding and custard.. I don't really do xmas, but its nice to have a special meal once in a while :P

Mouth-Wateringly yours,

~Frostilicus~

A Trip to Brisbane

Ah, today I took a trip into Brisbane to pick up a replacement spike for my eyebrow piercing that I lost yesterday while cleaning it. So after rejoicing in the fact that Queensland trains ARE air-conditioned (as it's superfuckinghot today), I got off the train and was greeted by heat and humidity. Gotta love Queensland. Anyhoo, I walked through the arcade, and there was a busker in the underpass playing some slide guitar. I'm envious of anyone qho plays good guitar, mostly cuz I still think I suck at it. Anyway, I made my way through the various malls and got to my piercing place (Punktured @ Off Ya Tree), and by the time I'd got there, I was more than sweating bullets.

Anyway, the replacement spike cost me $15 and I also got a spare eyebrow bar to go with it...it's blue acrylic... and yeah all up I spent $40, which I hadn't planned on. But anyhoo, it needed to be done, because I nearly lost the whole bar last night while I was sleeping.

After that I went to get some lunch, I had a Japanese Pork Curry at a little Japanese take-away in the Wintergarden Mall:



Accompanied by some Peach Iced Tea:



The curry itself was nice and tasty, and the crumbing on the pork was nice and crunchy. The iced tea was nice and refreshing on a day like this, too.

On my way back through the mall, I saw some buskers who were playing Beatles songs, and quite well I might add... although "She Loves You" seemed to have the exact same verse 3 times in a row...lol. Other than that, though I thought they were good enough to give a tip, so I tosses $1.20 into their guitar case as I was leaving.



They got applause from passers-by, though, so that's a good sign!

'Til next time,

~Frostilicus~

Replacements!

Dear Consumer,

We would like to thank the thousands of you who wrote, emailed and called in your concerns regarding Christmas Carols. We would therefore like to make the following changes:

"White Christmas" will now be replaced by the new and hip "Oh God, It's fucking Christmas and it's 40 Degrees Outside"

"Jingle Bells" will be adjusted to suit a warmer climate. "Dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh" will be replaced with "Dashing across the blazing hot sand to avoid burning your feet"

"Winter Wonderland" to be replaced by the brand spanking new "Summer Cesspool"

"Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire" wil be amended to "Grandpa's Nuts Roasting On A Hot Picnic Seat"

"Let It Snow" will be replaced by "Let It Rain, Because It's Too Bloody Hot For This Shit!"

And finally, "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" will be replaced this year by "Santa Claus Isn't Coming To Town This Year (The Fat Fuck Needs To Have Heart Surgery)"

We hope that our Christmas Program is now a more realistic representation of Christmas, in these times of Global Warming and generally hot, shitty weather in the summer of 2005 here in Queensland.

Regards,

The Bah-Humbug Committee.

Holy Shit, Obi-Wan!

This is without a doubt, one of the coolest and biggest Star Wars LEGO models I have ever seen.

It is the Republic Gunship from the opening scene of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith. It was built by Erik Varszegi, a Master LEGO Builder, and it was built for the Star Wars Celebration III. It is currently selling on Ebay and the bids are currently up to just over $31,000 US.

In Frostilicus' humble opinion, this is FUCKING AWESOME! Being the Star Wars geek that I am, I've got little SW LEGO models everywhere (and some I haven't even put together yet), but the biggest one I've got is Luke's X-Wing from The Empire Strikes Back. Even though I badly wanted the huge Millenium Falcon and the huge AT-AT Walker, I never got them due to lack of space (and cash). This, though is impressive due to the fact that it's a designed model and not one that's been put together from a kit. The "10 foot tall Yoda Model" that Erik goes on about was actually displayed here in Brisbane last year sometime (if I remember rightly), but I never took part in it.

Well, that's my Geekiness post for the day... now where did I leave my Lightsaber...?

How long can you last?

keep the cursor free of the little guy!

Avoider

Enjoy!

Recipes

An Actual Noodle Recipe
Fabulous Beef Curry A La Frostilicus
Bah Humbug Dinner Frostilicus Style

Fabulous Beef Curry A La Frostilicus

The "A La Frostilicus" part of this recipe comes in the marinating of the meat.

Ingredients:

500g Diced Beef
1 420g jar Sharwood's Spicy Tikka Masala (Medium Hot)
2 packs Tilda Plain Basmati Rice
1 large onion
Gourmet Garden Garlic Blend (or fresh garlic)
1 dessert spoon cornflour
Soy Sauce
Garlic Tabasco Sauce
Nando's Hot Peri Peri Sauce
Cumin Powder
White Pepper
Paprika
Mixed Herbs
Teriyaki Marinade
Golden Circle Pineapple Juice
Olive Oil
Milk

For The Marinade:

Put about 2 tablespoons of Gourmet Garlic Blend into a small bowl. (Equivalent of about 4 chopped garlic cloves) Add some Soy Sauce but do not stir in yet. Add some Garlic Tabasco and Peri Peri sauce to taste. I don't really use measurements that much when I'm cooking, so it's mostly up to how you like your food to taste. If you like more spiciness, then by all means, whack in as much Tabasco/Peri Peri as u like. Add Cumin Powder, White pepper, Paprika and Mixed Herbs (again, all to taste) and then pour in a good amount of Teriyaki Marinade. Stir it all together until it's in a saucy mixture. Put the diced beef into a container big enough, and pour the marinade over the beef. Mix through, and then splash over some pineapple juice. I used the normal unsweetened one, and I probably used about 5 table spoons of it. Stir through, cover, and refigerate for a few hours, shaking every now and again to agitate the mixture.

When it comes time to cook:

Cut the onion in half, then with each half, cut in half and then slice to a rough thickness. Not overly thin, but not overly thick either. Then roughly dice the sliced onions.

In a large saucepan, heat some olive oil, a small amount of butter, and a teaspoon of Garlic Blend. Add the onions and allow to cook for approximately 5 minutes. (Funnily enough, I don't really measure times as well when I cook) Then add the marinated beef and allow the beef to brown for about 10 minutes. By this time there should be quite a bit of liquid in the sauce pan. Take 1 dessert spoon of cornflour, and dissolve in 4 dessert spoons of cold water. Add slowly to the meat, making sure you stir it through, or else it will go gluggy and horrible.

Let the sauce thicken, and then add in the jar of Sharwood's Sauce. (Contrary to the label, I would call it "Medium" rather than "Medium Hot", but anyway...) Stir through, and then add a small amount of milk to the jar, put the lid back on the jar, shake and then pour the milk/sauce mixture over the beef. This is purely to get any remaining sauce in the jar and add a little bit more liquid to the saucepan...not that it was really needed, but oh well. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Open the rice packets and add directly into the pan. Mix through thoroughly. This will not only cook the rice, but flavour it as well. (And, not to mention, that it allows you to cook everything in the one pan, making for easier clean-up!) Turn the heat down to low and allow to warm for about 5 minutes or so.

Serve with garlic and coriander Naan bread.

Enjoy!

Pre-Season Stumbles

elgooG sdrawkcaB

BBC On This Day

The Skeptic's Dictionary

Wallpaper to poke many sticks at

I Don't Like You In That Way

Enjoy :P

Alternative Xmas Carols

**Note, for those of you who read this and actually LIKE Xmas, (unlike myself), you may wish to read something else other than this post. Frostilicus takes no responsibility for how pissed off you get, and would like to remind the general reading public, that Frostilicus chooses to have a sense of humour where religious things are concerned. If you can't take a joke, and take offence at this post, please FUCK OFF and whinge to someone else, because I can assure you, I will just laugh my ass of at your flames.**

These were posted in a thread I was reading on Yahoo!'s message boards this morning. Muslim parody Xmas carols, ahoy!

Infidels
(formally Jingle Bells)

Dashing thru the sand,
With a Christian head in hand,
While we speak of peace,
Our Jihad will not cease!

Watch them wring their hands,
Just like we have planned,
Oh what fun it is to kill,
On our way to paradise!

Infidels! Infidels!
We will kill you all!
Strapping on our dynamite,
At bus stops and the malls!

Infidels! Infidels!
We will kill you all!
While we speak the words of peace,
We'll make sure that you fall!


Last Christmas
(Formally White Christmas)


I'm dreaming of the last Christmas.
Just like Muhammad has foretold.
Where the Christians are weeping,
Their corpses seeping,
Brains and blood onto the snow!


Oh Holiday Tree
(formally Oh Christmas Tree)

Oh Holiday Tree!
Oh Holiday Tree!
We have removed Christianity!

Oh Holiday Tree!
Oh Holiday Tree!
We tricked them into destiny!

We speak of peace while killing them,
They apologize for our mayhem!

Oh Holiday Tree!
Oh Holiday Tree!
We have removed Christianity!

I hope you all cry from laughter :P

Yours,

~Frostilicus~

Today's Storm And Sunset

The weather was sunny-ish for most of today, with a bit of cloud in it. I managed to get a horribly bad headache after going out to the shops (this combination of heat and humidity really does me in sometimes), so I took some panadol and laid down. I woke up a couple of times, and wasn't terribly comfortable... I seemed to be drenched in sweat, and I decided to get out of bed. As I was doing so, I heard thunder. I looked outside and it was cloudy. Nothing rare for QLD, the weather changes quickly up here. I groggily poked my head around the corner of the doorway and noticed my housemate was shutting down her PC. I asked her "how bad does it look?", and before I had said "look" there was a huge burst of thunder. She looked at me and I just nodded and said "Yep, it's bad."

I shut down my PC and grabbed my camera. For the next 6 minutes or so I took this footage (megaupload, 4.5mb. wait 45 seconds, then a pop-over thingy slides down..click the X on that and the download button will be under it). The person I am talking to is my housemate, who shall remain nameless. And yes, I sound a bit groggy cuz I just woke up from my dismal nap.

I also took some pics of the storm:





This is while it was still raining... I think in the clip at one point I said something about taking a picture...lol

The rest of the pics I took are after the sun set, but it was still light out and the bank of clouds to the north looked awesome:



The sunset...well, after it had gone behind the house down the road, anyway...lol.



This is the set of clouds without zooming into it. It might not be evident in this picture, but the darker clouds were under the lighter ones, and sort of in front of them. The above shot was taken from the bathroom window.



Taken from the back deck, it's easier to see in this pic that the 2 sets of clouds are separate.





The next cloud was rather intriguing looking.



It looked a bit like a wave, to me. So I took another picture that was a bit more zoomed in...



This is another shot takem from the back deck:



And a couple more taken as it started to get darker:





(one taken from the back deck, the other taken from the bathroom window. As my back deck only extends enough to be able to not fall down the stairs when you open the back door, I resort to taking pics from the bathroom window, as there's less trees in the way.)

And the storm didn't do much in the way fo bringing down the temperature. It was still just as humid post-storm as it was pre-storm. Bloody QLD weather *shakes head* ... but at the moment, I'd much rather live here, so I guess I'll just have to put up with it...

'Til next time,

~Frostilicus~

Sex, in Fruit Form.

(No, this isn't a post about fucking a watermelon. Whatever gets YOU off, that's fine, but this post is about non-sexual escapades involving fruit.)

I took yet another trip to the shops today, while I was there I remembered I'd forgotten to get something out of the freezer for dinner, so I picked up a rather scrummy looking lamb steak, marinated with rosemary and honey and a couple of other things. While walking past the fruit aisle, I thought some fruit would be nice in this stiflingly awful heatwave we are experiencing. Mangoes? No, not in the mood for mango. Apples, Nectarines, Apricots... Nope. Pineapple?

Now I haven't had fresh pineapple in years. And the last time I had it, well it wasn't the best tasting pineapple I've had. So I picked up a little leaflet which was a short How-To on how to slice and dice your pineapple. It looked to be pretty easy, so I decided to get one. I picked up a medium (I guess, not being an authority on pineapple size) and put it into my carry basket. I picked up a couple of other items before heading home.

Oh, while I was on my way to the shops, I passed a group of born-again preacher types... A couple and their young children. (Under 6, at least). Daddy preacher, in his plain looking blue long sleeved shirt and wide brim hat, chose to be friendly and say "good morning" to me. Funny how his smile faded as I just glared at him and kept walking, shaking my head as I went. I saw teh exact same guy on the way back, revelling in the air-conditioned comfort of someone's 4 Wheel Drive truck. He looked at me again, and I again just shook my head and kept going. I hope he comes to my door... I'd love to tell him to fuck off! :D

And the pineapple? Sweet and juicy... *drools* ....yummy! :)

Friday's Semi-Rant

Man, it must be the weather or something that seems to be pissing me off constantly... I went to the shops again today, for some fruit juice and some long-life milk (which I finally found, in the tea and coffee aisle, which I go down very frequently..go figure). There was yet another hold-up at the checkout (no, not the guns and ammo type), some old lady (it's ALWAYS the old people) had an item that wouldn't scan, so she trotted off to get the price. Meanwhile, I'm rolling my eyes thinking "oh God, not again!". It doesn't take as long as I expected it to, the old lady was kinda springy on her feet.

I saw some chick who had about 6 or 7 tattoos on her, one of which was a nice looking back piece...I don't remember exactly what it was, but it looked really good. I complimented her on it, and she gave me a pissed off "what the fuck are you looking at" look, and I just thought.. if someone was going to compliment me on a cool tattoo that I had, the least I would do is say thanks. But no, I didn't even get a thank you, nor even a smile. Rude bitch.

So anyway, it was slightly less painful than yesterday's effort, which is rather refreshing.

'Til next rant,

~Frostilicus~

Thursday's Rant

I went to do a little shopping today (having to shop/cook for myself while the usual chef of the house is on holidays), and God, it was hellish. I should remember that Thursday being pension day, there's lots of old people (screw PC-ness) who shop, and now, being summer school holidays, parents with their kids, who whine and whinge about "Mum, can I have chocolate?", "Mum, can I have ice cream?", blah blah blah. Anyway, I only intended to get a few things, to tide me over until payday next week, when I ended up with double what I intended (as per usual), but on the upside, at least I'm not going to starve.

Anyhoo, I wandered around picking up this and that and putting it into the carry basket, realising that, oh fuck, I'm going to have to wait in the regular line, as I've got like 15 items in my little basket (ok, it was fuller than full). So I pick the shortest line.. and end up stuck behind some pensioner who has like 3 bags of cat litter in her trolley... and I think to myself, YAY! A crazy cat lady! And then I remember I've forgotten to get something, so I swear out loud and then go to look for some UHT full cream milk. Which I don't find. So fuck it, I get a litre of regular milk, and head back to the checkouts. Joy! More people have lined up, so again I pick the smallest one and I'm standing behind this Indian woman. She's got not a whole lot in her trolley, so I figure I'm in for a short wait. That is until I realise the checkout chick is putting the bigger bills into that cash chute thingy, and I'm getting more pissed off by the second. It's hot outside today, and I don't think anyone likes to be aggravated when it's hot, even in an air-conditioned supermarket.

I finally get to put my groceries on the little conveyor belt thing, and then checkout girl has to put some more plastic bags on the plastic bag holder. She looks up at me and feigns a smile, apologising for the wait. I feign a smile back, all the while thinking "whatever lady, just get the fuck on with it, I'm not in the mood".

Ugh. The other "rant" part of this though, has to do with the "8 Items or Less" express line. One thing I fucking *HATE* is people who can't read the sign that says "8 Items or Less". It's usually old people that rock up with like 15-16 items. 1 or 2 items over I'm not picky about, but DOUBLE the items? GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE LINE, YOU MORON!!

Rantingly yours,

~Frostilicus~

Some Funny Flash Toons

Pong

Dancing Purple Thing

Celebrity XXX (LOL!)

The Proper Use OF English

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

Stumbling On A Wednesday

Word Association

Ant City

Levitated

Top 50 viewed recipes at The Virtual Bar

Skydiver Puzzke (place the pieces)

Enjoy.

Serious eBay Addiction

I may never accuse my housemate's of being eBay wh0res again, at least not after seeing this website

*shakes head*

Mardi (Tuesday) Stumbles

Nosquito

Top 100 April Fool's Hoaxes Of All Time

The Subservient Chicken (I recommend typing in "dance")

List Of Unusual Deaths

Matrix Ping Pong (This is one reason why the Japanese never fail to make me laugh)

Enjoy :P

New Look

I have updated the look of the blog a little bit... the logo is self designed with a couple of typefaces i snagged off a random webby and the background colour is now black...

Stumbles For Monday

Cave Directory

The Rasterbator

A Recipe for Scotch Eggs (Yummy!)

Prick Magazine

Micro$oft's Guide to 1337 5p3ak (hahaha)

Enjoy!

R.I.P. Richard Pryor

Comedian Richard Pryor dead: wife

2 hours, 42 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Actor-comedian
Richard Pryor, who helped transform comedy with biting commentary on race and his own shortcomings, died on Saturday at age 65 after a long illness, his wife told CNN.
ADVERTISEMENT


"He was my treasure," Jennifer Pryor said in a telephone interview. "His comedy is unparalleled. They say that you are not a comic unless you imitate Richard Pryor. ... He was able to turn his pain into comedy."

Pryor's wife said he died of cardiac arrest at 7:58 a.m. PST after her efforts to resuscitate him failed and after he was taken to a hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino. Pryor had been suffering from multiple sclerosis, a degenerative nervous system disease, for almost 20 years.

While he appeared in many successful movies, it was Pryor's stand-up comedy act, in which nothing was off-limits, that made him a controversial star. Racism was a major component of his routine and he even joked about a 1980 incident in which he nearly died after setting himself on fire while free-basing cocaine.

Pryor marked his 65th birthday on December 1.

"He's been so strong for so many years," Jennifer Pryor told CNN. "He's had this disease (multiple sclerosis) since 1986 ... He's had beyond nine lives. We used to joke he's going to outlive everybody.

"He was an extraordinary man, as you know. He enjoyed life right up until the end. He did not suffer, he went quickly, at the end there was a smile on his face ... he's a very, very, very amazing man and he opened doors to so many people."

Pryor was married seven times, including twice to Jennifer and twice to Flynn Belaine, and had seven children.

Pryor grew up in the Peoria, Illinois, brothel run by his grandmother. After a stint in the Army, he pursued a comedy career that landed him spots on the Ed Sullivan and
Merv Griffinshows in the 1960s.

He eventually grew unhappy with the "white bread" humor those shows sought and revamped his act with inspiration from the hustlers, pimps and other characters he had encountered at his grandmother's whorehouse. The result was a routine that was both profound and profane.

"He had a courage and a heart and a spirit that was unmatchable and, of course, he was controversial," Jennifer Pryor said. "That was wonderful Richard. He told the truth, didn't he? ... he told the truth and he was very proud.

"Bigoted rednecks came up to Richard and told him, 'Thank you for opening my eyes,' because he was so in touch with the truth and only spoke the truth ... people respond to that."

Pryor won
Grammy Awardsfor his comedy albums and portrayed Billie Holiday's piano player in the 1972 Oscar-nominated film "Lady Sings the Blues."

His other movies included "Uptown Saturday Night," "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings," "Blue Collar," "Stir Crazy," "Superman III" and "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling," which was based loosely on his life.

"He was an innovator, a trailblazer," director
Spike Leetold CNN. "It's a great loss."


Linkage

Heinz Cheesy Macaroni

With my 3 of my 4 housemates on hiatus, dinner is a "fend for myself" deal until they return. Not that I mind, I can eat whatever I like, which is usually completely different to what my housemates will eat. (Damn Australian food tastes...tsk tsk) So for tonight I've lined up a mild chicken curry, and for lunch, I decided to road test Heinz Cheesy Macaroni. It looked edible enough on the can, anyway.



Here's the can... mmmm...cheesy goodness. I decided to add some cheese to it as well, just as a bit of extra flavour. I unloaded the contents of the can (which looks something like chunky yellow goo) into a bowl:



There were a couple of pasta chunks left in the tin, too so I scooped them out and into the bowl. I stuck it into the microwave and because our microwave is a bit old and you can never figure out how long to cook things, I put it in for about 3 and a half minutes. (I'm assuming, it has a dial control)

About halfway through, I added some cheese. I got some Mainland Special Reserve Tasty cheese yesterday... I'm a bit of a cheese snob sometimes, I tend to enjoy different types of cheese (this is from growing up with a French parent) and this one is nicer than the usual cheddar/tasty.



I cut up a little bit, and sprinkled it onto my yellow chunky slop in a bowl:



And cooked it for the remaining time. It came out all bubbly, and I stirred the cheese through it, which was nicely melted. The taste? Well, let's just say it would have been kinda bland without the added cheese. But then I'm a cheese snob, as I said. It would go well with some knackwurst or other kind of sausage if you are that way inclined.

I give it.. 3 and a half munches out of 5.

An Open Letter to The Queen Of Pop

Dearest Madonna,

While I have still the greatest respect for your talent, might I just say, if you are going to wear a leotard, PLEASE make sure it at least covers your ass. Wedgies are neither attractive, nor popular, and while yoga is obviously doing wonders for your physique, a wedgie is just *not* attractive on a 47 year old woman. Yes, I take back my previously elsewhere stated comments after seeing "I'm Going To Tell You A Secret", you can still pull off a great live show (one which I might endeavour to see if you grace Australia with your presence next year). However, there is something about half of your "Hung Up" video that completely rubs me the wrong way, and it has to do with the aforementioned leotard. And I'm sorry, I don't know if it had to do with the cheap black and white TV I watched the telecast on, but your performance on the MTV European Music Awards seemed to sport an even worse wedgie. Learn to pull your leotard out of your ass, for the love of Kabbalah!! (Ok, that was a cheap shot!)

Sincerely,

Frostilicus and the rest of the viewing public.

Aftermath

Went out for walkies today and took my camera with me, thinking (ok, hoping) that there would be something blogworthy in the way of fallen trees or smashed signs or somthing. Well I didn't see any smashed signs, I looked at KFC, but the Colonel Sanders bucket was still intact. (It had been smashed in a previous storm) However, I saw that the trees down the road from me had some branches come off it:



Along the main road near me there is a house that has a canopy/pergola thing set up, and, it got a beating in the storm last night and was a twisted mess this morning:



At the intersection, the sand tends to collect at the end of the footpath, as it is on a slope. Every now and again they getrid of the sand, but that's pointless as it just collects again next time it rains.



While I was in the shopping centre the lights dimmed a bit for a second, and when I came out on my way home, I was greeted by this set of clouds, which made me think it was going to storm again. (No such luck at the time of writing this!)



And here's a few more cloud shots... which may bring more rain...who knows?







Enjoy!

~FF~

One Mother Of A Storm (Or, "God Is On The Rag Again")

(Teehee @ my title)

Well, we had one mother of a storm last night. I took both video and pictures, and until I can find somewhere free (or cheap) that will host my video (as this blog is written on a less-than-shoestring budget) I'll just post some of the pics I took.



This is the storm as it approached. It didn't really look that threatening to begin with. But on the radar, it DID look threatening. A wide band of orange/red surrounded by blue and it was headed right for us. (a la South Park) Needless to say, the weather got a LOT worse for the next hour and a half or so.






This is the storm about 5-10 minutes later. As you can see, it was getting darker and darker outside, and it looked even more threatening. It was a good thing we had shut down the computers when we did, because about 3-5 minutes later, the power had flickered and then gone out. My housemate's bedroom window was open, and by then it had started raining, and the wind was so fierce that it was blowing the curtain up to the roof, and the rain had saturated her quilt, which, I might add, was on the opposite side of the room.

The storm crept up really fast. I'm talking calm one minute, chaos the next. It was only about 5:30pm, which is still daylight in summer here, and this is what it looked like outside:





The last time I saw a storm this bad was when I was living on the north side of Brisbane about 4 years ago. This is the first really bad storm we've had since living on the south side and the worst one so far this season. It knocked our power out for most of the night, and I heard from a friend that there were around 33,000 homes without power in the aftermath. There was no power in our street, the street behind us, or even the McDonald's which is on the other side of the main road 3 blocks away.



Apologies for the darkness of this picture. I did have the flash on, but it was really dark out there. I mostly went to video mode at this point, and I was shooting out of my back door. I was shooting out of the front door at first, but I started to get drenched really badly as the wind was blowing the rain towards me. I said at one point that it looked like the rain wasn't even touching the ground, it was travelling mostly sideways due to the strong winds. Looking at the palm trees in my neighbour's yard made it look like there was a cyclone happening.





The flash on my camera seems to react with the first object it sees that will reflect a flash. In the case of these 2 pictures, it was the raindrops that were falling, rather than the windswept teees I was trying to take pictures of.

Well, the storm had us indoors and had my housemate's 4 year old daughter freaking out a bit, but on the UPside of it, it cleaned our front screen door, to the point where it left mud on the front door!





Squeaky clean! :)

The weather afterwards cleared, although it was a little cloudy it was mostly still for the rest of the night in our area. We did get a rainbow, as well, which was noticed by our next door neighbour:






The clouds made for some fantastic sunset pictures, as well.









And as the day finally turned to dusk, the orange/pinkish/purple tones really stood out, making for some really beautiful photographs...





Ahh, lovely :)

Apparently there's more weather on the way this afternoon, we shall see. I hope so! :D

Enjoy!

~FF~

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