chosha saves christmas

I called Flexi Boy this afternoon to ask if he'd bought a particular present for someone (so I could get it if he hadn't) and discovered he was also at the mall. When we met up for bubble tea ten minutes later I asked how many presents he still needed to buy. He said all of them bar one: seven presents.

It was then I informed him that the shops were closing in less than an hour.

One mystery book (my present), Barbie Island Princess bean bag, sea monkeys, video game, Play Doh, Iron Man DVD, box of sea shell chocolates and bathrobe purchase later he was all set. I took him back with his treasures to my place and we wrapped everything so he could take it all home ready to go under the tree. It was a crazy hour of shopping, but so much fun!

This year is the first year he's had a real part-time job and he was excited that he could afford to get people things they'd really like. Not that that always meant something expensive - one of the presents cost him $80, another just $9, but in both cases it was right for the person - but last year he probably had $50 to spend in total and had to decide everything by price. All three of the kids are like that. They really enjoy buying gifts for other people and appreciate everything they receive. I'm really looking forward to watching everyone open their presents tomorrow.

roll on, last minute shopping!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I'm working, but the Chairman (like a CEO) always sends an email out on the last day to tell everyone to go home at lunchtime. As you can imagine, everyone likes that tradition. It's also payday, and almost all government employees get paid on the same day, so the shops are going to be busy, but not too insane, as half of Canberra has already taken off for their holidays. Canberra is so deserted around this time of year that some restaurants shut down for two weeks. This is the first place I've ever lived where that was the case. The cinema never has much of a line and you can actually finish your Christmas shopping without lines ten people deep.

I have maybe four presents left to buy and somewhere in there I need to get a haircut, too. I finally sent some Christmas cards out on Monday. They'll be late of course, but seeing as this is the first time in three Christmases that I managed to actually post the things, I'm going easy on myself. :)

top shops

Smitten Kitten

Isn't that a great name for a lingerie shop? I walked past it yesterday in Melbourne. The area around Melbourne Central has the cutest little alleys.









I also saw a funky boutique called Kinki Gerlinki. Their stock comes from all over Asia: Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and China. It's always fun shopping when shoes have studded green jelly soles. And personally I can never get enough raspberry-coloured polka dots.

So, if you were opening a shop with a rhyming name, what would it be? I rather fancy a lolly shop called 'Dandy Candy.'

On a non-rhyming note, don't you think an excellent name for a Sci-Fi/Fantasy bookshop would be 'Asimov Cocktail'? Maybe a Sci-Fi/Fantasy-themed bar would be better. :)

most awesome order confirmation ever

...and all for a t-shirt:

Thank You for your order with PalmerCash.com

Right now your order is being printed out in the center of our warehouse on paper made of gold. We are all standing around waiting for it to finish and then we will place your order on a pillow as we wait for Palmer Cash to announce what you have ordered. Standing from his podium he will ring the bell 3 times and everyone will stop what they are doing as he reads your order to us. Then we will all burst into song and dance with such religious fervor to your wise and excellent choices.

Next your order will be packed with care by 3 virgin and one very advanced monkey wearing white gloves into a specially designed package that resists water, dirt, air and radiation in case of a nuclear explosion. Then your order will be sent out Priority Mail and make its long journey to it's new home avoiding thieves and hoodlums to land softly in your caring hands.

fashion in japan

Here's a bit of a selection of the clothes I saw everywhere on young people in Osaka and Tokyo. The shirt with the butterfly below is style of shirt I saw a lot. Apart from butterflies I've also seen guns, guitars and skulls. Click any of the pictures for a closer look.











The picture I wanted but didn't get was of a particular outfit a lot of women were wearing, consisting of very short shorts (or plaid knickerbockers) worn with dark winter tights and ankle boots. I was a little disturbed by the 80s flashback it gave me. I've been searching the web for a good image to no avail, though the shorts below are the most common type I saw, over thick black tights. I've realised from searching around that Japan is not the only place women are wearing shorts over tights lately. I haven't seen it in Australia, but then it is the middle of summer here, so wearing tights for any reason would be crazy.

pure sound osaka

This video is for Roofshadow and Industrial Athena. Remember what a jumbled obstacle course Pure Sound in America-mura used to be? Have a look at it now!

How did they achieve this miracle, you ask? They moved all the indies music downstairs into the music store, which is now at least half indies.

the skirt that saved japan

Not a snap from my holiday, but an advert for a skirt that transforms into a vending machine costume to fool stalkers and other miscreants who might be following a Japanese woman home.

I'd love to see a video of the transformation from skirt to this. It would have to be a quick change to fool some follower who's only a block behind you. The pictures (below) don't make it look easy. I want to see how they get from the second stage to the third.

Of course the only reason this could work is because in urban Japan a row of vending machines like this one can be found every few blocks. Apparently it takes the same amount of electricity to run one in summer as the electricity use of an average Japanese household. Yes, in the home of the Kyoto Accord. Scary.

But I digress. If you would like the protection of the transforming skirt (or just think it would make a good Halloween costume) it won't be cheap. This Aya Tsukioka designer skirt sells for around $800.

ninja goodness

say 'cheese'

I haven't had a digital camera for a while. I borrowed one from work recently to take some photos of items I was putting on eBay, but I knew I wouldn't get away with keeping it long enough to take it to Japan with me ~ would have been super cheeky even to ask. And in truth I love owning a decent camera and my last digital, which came to me secondhand from my mum, was a tiny el cheapo with not much zoom (though it was devilishly easy to sneak into a concert, being so little). I decided that this trip was a good enough reason to put a camera on my credit card (tough decision given that NOT putting stuff on credit is my life theme right now) and so I've been researching cameras for a couple of days.

Today I bought this:

I not only got a $70 discount, but because I'm travelling overseas tomorrow, I'm also going to get all my GST back (around $80) because it's duty-free. The camera shop guy also threw in the extended warranty (two extra years) and gave me $15 off each of my new memory cards. It has a lithium battery and the charger accepts both 240V (Australian power) and 110V (Japanese power) so all I needed was a $12 adaptor to change the shape of the plug and I can now recharge it while I'm in Japan. This is very good because I tend to use the display when taking photos, so I was chewing up AA batteries with both my previous cameras.

It has an optical stabaliser and intelligent ISO. It's 8 megapixels and doesn't have that lag some digital cameras do when you press the button to take a picture. But the coolest feature by far for chosha the zoom junkie is that it has an 18x optical zoom. Yes, that's right...I said 18x. I was estatic at the thought of the Canon S5 IS having 12x zoom. I nearly passed out with delight at the thought of 18. I will be able to take close-ups of an ant's eyeball with that level of zoominess! (Yes, of course that's a word.)

Here's a very long paste from a review site that gives all the details:

Panasonic has expanded its LUMIX family of digtal still cameras with the introduction of the LUMIX DMC-FZ18, an 8.1 Megapixel compact camera with an impressive 18x optical zoom. In addition to a premium 28mm wide-angle LEICA DC lens, the DMC-FX18 joins the LUMIX DMC-FX33 and DMC-FX55 as the first Panasonic digital cameras to offer the revolutionary Intelligent Auto Mode, which include Face Detection, Intelligent Scene Selector and Continuous Auto-focus functions, allowing users to easily capture clear, professional-quality images in any situation or setting.

When this powerful camera, with an optical zoom up to 18x, is put into Intelligent Auto Mode, the multi-faceted functions engage automatically, so there is no need to adjust settings every time conditions change. The DMC- FZ18’s intuitive Intelligent Auto Mode is comprised of:

- Intelligent Scene Selector, which automatically selects the appropriate scene mode from the most frequently-used modes such as Portrait,Scenery, Macro, Night Scenery and Night Portrait

- Face Detection System, which helps the camera to focus, set auto exposure and detects up to 15 human faces capturing them clearly and brightly, and

- Continuous Auto-focus, which allows the camera to keep focus on the subject without having to press the shutter button halfway and allowing for the best results out of a shutter chance by minimizing the auto-focus time.

“The Intelligent Auto Mode in the DMC-FZ18 does all the work for you, making photo-taking trouble-free,” noted Alex Fried, National Marketing Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. “When taking into account the camera’s 18x optical zoom, which is among the industry’s longest zooms, and then adding 8.1 Megapixels, a 28mm wide-angle lens, MEGA Optical Image Stabilization, and Intelligent Auto Mode, the DMC-FZ18 delivers professional-level photo quality, in a powerful camera packed with advanced features that is still easy to use.”

Similar to the entire 2007 line of LUMIX digital still cameras, the camera sports advanced countermeasures against blurring - the Intelligent Image Stabilization system, which combines MEGA Optical Image Stabilization (O.I.S.) to compensate for hand-shake and Intelligent ISO Control to detect and adjust for motion blur caused by subject movement.

The LUMIX DMC-FZ18 also is equipped with a 2.5-inch large, high resolution LCD with 207,000 pixels, a 0.44-inch Electric Viewfinder with 188,000 pixels, f/2.8 brightness and is powered by the high-quality, high-performance, Venus Engine III, which boasts shooting at ISO 1600 in normal recording mode.

The DMC-FZ18 has been redesigned to make the camera more stylish and easier to use. The auto focus, auto exposure lock, and Macro buttons are now independent, to allow quick and direct operation, a metal-finished mode dial adds design strength and an enhanced rubber grip makes the camera easier to hold. The redesigned body also incorporates the joystick made popular by the DMC-FZ8 model, which enables a host of settings, such as manual focusing and exposure, to be done quickly and easily.

Other advanced features of the LUMIX DMC-FZ18 include:

- Custom Setting Mode that memorizes your frequent setting patterns for instance use applied by simply selecting this function on the mode dial

- 1920 x 1080 pixel photos ideal for full-screen viewing on a wide-screen
HDTV

- Six auto-focusing methods including: face detection, multi, three-point high-speed, one-point high-speed, one-point normal-speed, and spot.With the one-point auto-focus or spot auto-focus method, the auto-focusing area can be chosen from as many as 11 points with the joystick or cursor button

- Advanced Scene Modes provide users more control over some frequently-used scene modes such as, indoor and outdoor modes when selectingportrait or sports mode and nature or architecture settings whenselecting portrait mode

- Bundled SILKYPIX Developer Studio 2.0SE software application for editing and developing images in the RAW file format

- 27 MB of built-in memory: Perfect for backing up SDHC/SD Memory Card recording

- Extra Optical Zoom feature extends zoom power to 28.7x at 3 Megapixels

- Compatibility with large-capacity SDHC memory cards

- Title Edit Function allows inputting of text and additional picture information

- Picture Playback by category: Sorts images into categories such asportraits, landscapes, nightscapes, events and motion pictures. Also, allows slideshow playback of images in the same category.

new harry potter products at alivan's

One day when I finally visit LA (assuming all my friends who live there don't move on before I make the trip to the US) I'm going to take a pile of galleons into Alivan's and go shopoholic on their magical butts. My favourite 'things I won't be buying from overseas because the postage will cost too much' from their selection of new items are:

I'd have to be careful where I put this. I can imagine small children smacking headfirst into my wall after "taking it at a bit of a run."

The Snitch isn't a new item, but I just wanted to comment that it's much cooler than the plush one the Whimsic Alley sells.

I'm wondering if those two almost-not-there faces are Bill and Charlie, given that we haven't seen them yet in the movies. It would be cool if the clock had a spare one or two that you could put your own photos into, but I think that's just wishful thinking.







This lamp is pricey (around $60!!!) but would look tres cool with a blue light bulb inside. ^_^

a picture is worth a thousand cutting remarks

Looking for a special gift for that bitter newly-divorced friend? Here's a quirky little option I spotted in a local homewares store. Packs quite an impact, no?

Could be deeply satisfying...in a deeply twisted way.