My good friend Eirik sent me a piece of video overnight that almost made me cry, not because it was sad, but purely because it was beautiful.

Shot by Richard Hernandez, who has written the book on online multimedia - literally - it just totally took me away from the day’s grind for its 2min 49sec duration. The Nine Inch Nails soundtrack helped, too.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Scenes from a Vacation from richard hernandez on Vimeo.

This is a Wordle, incorporating the most popular tags on my Flickr.

I got an email this morning from a couple of chaps doing some creative for Amnesty International. Basically, the story goes that a while back, they found an image I’d taken of the start line of the 100m at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. They wanted to use it, for what I had no idea at the time. But as it turns out, their plan was an ingenious one.

As you an see from the embed below, what they achieved is superb. Given China’s human rights abuses are something I feel pretty strongly about, I was absolutely delighted with what I saw.

Anyway, in the tradition of letting the picture speak for itself, please enjoy.

I was walking home last night with Elle and we stumbled across an empty house for sale. With no curtains, we could see straight in and were blown away by how awesome this place was.

I could attempt to describe it, but it’s probably easier for you to just look for yourself. To say it took our breath away is an understatement, so we looked it up on the net when we got home, and decided to email the agent to get an idea of what price they’d be looking for.

So this morning, I got a reply, which read: “We passed in at $1.5 million and we’re hoping for $1.6 million. Let me know if you need anymore information.”

Needless to say, I didn’t email him back. For a three bedroom house, albeit with a decidedly cool pool, that’s just insane.

Elle and I also played around with the mortgage calculator while on the Bresic Whitney website, and discovered that our rent was quite substantially cheaper than a mortgage would be in our desired price range. Then, I keep reading about a rental crisis, too, with the market flooded by homeowners unable to keep up repayments, pushing the rents up along with increased costs for current landlords. Having just ben slugged with a $50 per week increase ourselves, we know all about that.

So then my mum, quite coincidentally, sends me a story from the BBC website about residents in Sydney ditching both rental homes and buying for the joy of a caravan park.

Now I’m all for finding alternatives to expensive living, but I reckon this is a bit ridiculous. Firstly, there are alternatives to living this way in Sydney. I don’t care who you are, but if you’re employed, there is no reason to resort to living in a caravan park unless you actually want. I think the BBC is perhaps guilty of painting a false picture with its story. I certainly won’t be moving to a caravan park.

But I am pissed off that I can’t afford to buy a house without borrowing a ludicrous amount of money and going into debt. I’m also pissed off that rents for anything bigger than a studio are also beginning to get out of control.

I’m thinking it might be worth buying something cheap, out of Sydney, and renting it out. I’d continue to rent in Sydney while that place essentially pays for itself thanks to tenants like myself. It’s a tactic a friend of mine has employed with great success, buying up property in Townsville, and paying them off before selling at a profit.

People are always saying “it’s a good time to buy”, but I don’t honestly think it’s ever a good time to go into insurmountable debt. But I know what they mean, and perhaps, sometime soon, I’ll dive into the property market and see how I go.

I bit the bullet today and bought myself a Macbok Pr. It’s something I’d wanted to do for some time, but I just never had a good reason. That was until my PC decided to fry its hard drive and leave me with nothing. Actually, that’s not strictly true - I did back up.

However, I took it as a sign to move out of the Microsoft world and into the world of Mac.

First impressions, as with any Apple product, are usually a simple “Wow”, and then you start playing. I remember when I got my first iPod - an iPod mini, with about enough memory for three albums. Still, it was awesome at the time. Then I upgraded to a full 60GB video iPod, and supplemented that with the more pocket friendly Nano. Both I still love and use constantly - and now, I have a Macbook.

I’m excited about the possibilities this presents me in a creative sense, not least since my two main hobbies are photography and music, activities for which the Mac was pretty much purpose built.

First tasks are to get used to the little differences - no double clicking, no right clicking, etc. It’s a little weird at first, but it’s taking me back to my page laout days, when I used a Mac every day of the week.

I went for the Pro over the plain Macbook for a couple of reasons - the bigger screen, the capacity to have a matt finish on that screen for outdoor comfort and the keyboard, which is a joy to type this on, that’s for sure.

As for what it can do, I’m yet to really give it a shakedown, but I’ll do my best and post as many of my creative results here for you to enjoy.

Until then, take it easy.

OK, OK … I know I’ve said this before, but this time I really mean it. I’m going to start posting more regularly. Why now and not before? Well, that’s a tough question, but I guess my best answer is that I feel like I have the time to do it more often now, and I’m more stimulated to do so, too.

I guess in the past, I’ve felt like I’m talking to myself a bit, but much of that is down to me. I need to:

• a) blog more often and;
• b) let people know when I’ve posted something so they can come and read and also participate in any discussion I might start.

So, what have I been up to since I last posted? Well, looking at when that was, quite a bit. I travelled the world – and I’ll detail that in separate posts over the coming days. I also lost one job and started another, which has been challenging. I recorded and released the second EP of my musical career, this time with Fuzu, and I fell in love.

Anyway, like I said, I’ll get to all that separately when the mood strikes. The sole purpose of this post is quite simply to say, “I’m back”, and I hope you enjoy what I’ve got to say.

There was a photographic exhibition at News Digital Media, kind of where I work, and I was invited to take part with all the designers and creatives, as you know photography is a bit of hobby.

From hundreds of amazing images, five of mine made it to the final, and one of them won first prize!

I still can’t quite believe it to be honest, because some of the other photographs in there were so so good. I’m really humbled and proud at the same time. I haven’t really won anything like this before, so it was a real thrill.

Anyway, you can view the finalists here. The top five, including my winning image, are at the end of the slide show.

The photo itself is on my flickr page, too, so drop by there and give it a view in a larger size, if you want.

The top five will be printed full size and hung at News Digital Media offices in Pyrmont, Sydney, which is really cool.

Yep, I’m a happy boy, and a massive thanks to everyone that voted for me. I don’t know what to say, other than you flatter me, and I am forever grateful.

I got this off popbitch today. Not sure either how much truth there is behind it, or where it came from, and haven’t the time to research further today. But I will try, at some point.

Anyway, popbitch says:
Last year America made arms deals worth $US21 billion - a new world record.
In second place was UK, with $US4.8 billion, including deals with 19 out of 20 countries whose human rights records the UK Foreign Office say is “of concern”.

How dumb can we be to let this sort of thing go on?

OK - I’m in serious mode here …

I’ve been checking out MediaStorm today, which is a multimedia site showcasing some off the most incredible stories I have ever seen in the online environment. It’s got great examples of how to present stories in the medium, and one in particular really hit me hard.

You can watch it here. It’s called Bloodlines, and is about the AIDS pandemic in Africa, using some incredible photographs by Kristen Ashburn, an American award-winning photojournalist. I warn you, it’s not a happy piece, but it’s an awesome example of how tragic tales, when presented with beauty, can really make you think and act. They seep into your soul and open your mind and heart to things too many people in this world ignore. Well, that’s how I react to them, anyway.

So next time an AIDS charity collector shakes a red bucket in front of you in the street, do me a favour, and fish a dollar, or two if you can, from your pocket and drop it in. This piece will waste 12 minutes of your life, but all you have to do is remember you have one to understand it is a small sacrifice in comparison to what so many people in the world today have to deal with.

Foraggio x

My friend Arow just sent me the most beautiful text message, and I thought I’d share with you, because it was so lovely. And so it read:

The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colourless when unbroken. If I am sad, it is only so that I may feel happiness the more intensely when next it visits. In the meantime, I am abroad, in my mind. Happy daze. x .

Thanks Arow, you make me feel like dancing x