Trivia in the Pub (11)

This week, something or other was happening at the theater near the pub. Probably a show or something, since that's usually the type of even that happens at theaters. One could almost say it's their function. In any case, this meant that the pub was busier than normal. We weren't able to grab a normal table, or even group of tables, large enough for our team, so we had to sit at the pool table converted into a table by having a board placed on top of it.

This table is uncomfortable, since your legs cannot fit under it. Anyway, enough griping.

The first thing I was asked to draw was Asterix. There he is top left. Oh no, wait, that's an asterisk. Very different. Then Obelix was requested. It's been years since I'd read any of the comics, so I'm relatively happy with what I managed to recall. Makes me want to go and read them again though. Ah, nostaligia.

I was then asked to draw Tintin. Moderate success here, Milou doesn't look like Milou. Then I drew my friend Dan's head. Couldn't be bothered drawing the rest of him, so it remained a disembodied head, dripping blood, for effect.

Next was a mermaid version of me. Happy to oblige, it's nothing like the Little Mermaid, but that's ok. Continuing the fairy tale theme, Sleeping Beauty, followed by a Picasso rendering of a woman's face. Finally, Rapunzel's tower. A friend then drew her hair and the prince, prepared to rescue her.

Here we have a water nymph. Got into a bit of trouble from the requester for drawing her in a schooner :). Still, was funny at the time, and still is. I was then asked to draw a dryad. Not a problem. The magic of Paint also gets rid of the horrible lines that I couldn't erase on the night. Ah computers, how I love thee...

That was Trivia.

We lost, sadly. We were doing very well until the last all-or-nothing question. "Which author had an asteroid named after them in 2006?" The answer was J. K. Rowling. Who'd have thought? They name asteroids after anyone these days...

Six Prompts Drawing Meme

Found and completed this drawing exercise.

Had a lot of fun doing it too. Enjoy!

Trivia in the Pub (10)

Trivia in the pub again yesterday.

Unfortunately, it rained as I was walking to the pub from the station. I was too lazy to get my umbrella out, or to run, or even to walk at more than a leisurely pace, so I got quite wet. It's quite amusing to be walking sedately and seeing other people dash for cover from the wind and rain.

Cutting to the chase, here are the sketches from the night:

We have, starting from the top left: Le Petit Prince. (For all you uncultured Philistines unaware of who that is, I refer you here for some much needed education.) We have some wine, a stick figure with boobs, some of my teammates, an attempt at a Canadian Mountie. Yes, I perhaps have been watching too much Due South. And then last sketch was a woman in a bikini. No reason. Well, I'd had some wine, so... yeah.

We didn't win trivia. As usual, I helped answer the Pirates of the Carribean questions, so I felt validated.

Better luck next time, I suppose.

Sydney Dust Storm : Sign of the Apocalypse?

Imagine waking up to an orange sky. There is no sun, there are no clouds, there are no birds. Everything is covered in dust and you're fortunate if you can see a couple hundred meters in the distance.

This was this morning. The end of the world.

Or at least, it would have been kind of awesome if it were the case. I wonder how many Christians, particularly Hillsong, woke up thinking it might be the rapture. Would that make them happy or afraid?

Still, apocalypse or no, I still had to go to work. How's that for dedication?

Here's the view on the way. Incidentally, a colleague I showed this photo to said he was mugged on that very corner. Saved by a woman from the brothel nearby (to the right of where I'm standing), who screamed when she saw the five men, one of whom wielded a knife, which made them run away.

It was simply surreal walking through the city with an orange sky. Pretty awesome too though, at the same time.

Some of these photos look like they were edited to be in sepia tones. It gives everything a classy look, perhaps we should try and keep it from now on...

I was worried for a moment my bus might be cancelled, the streets were quiet, much fewer pedestrians than normal and fewer cars as well. Save for the sound of sirens and a firetruck whizzing by, the city seemed muffled.

Crossing the Harbour Bridge, it wasn't possible to see anything at all. I couldn't make out the Opera House. Not even the water. For all I know, they have been engulfed by our new lord and master, Cthulhu.

I kept looking up to the sky, half expecting these guys to make a showing, Now that would have been really neat.

I was fortunate enough to get a lift shortly after getting off the bus. A colleague saw me walking up the hill and figured he'd spare me walking 30 minutes in the dust laden air. Worked out pretty well. There was a fight to get cars in the undercover parking, of course, since no one wanted to leave their car to get covered in (more) dust, or to have trees fall on it, which, I'm told, is a possibility.

I can't wait to see how the rest of the day pans out.

The Ones that Didn't Get Away

There are two kinds of birds. The ones I manage to take photos of, and those I don't. These are the former, I'll have a post about the latter later.

Here was the duck I saw again yesterday, in exactly the same spot. Sadly, I didn't see Mr. Duck this morning, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Mr Duck gets up as I get closer. I really need more zoom on the next camera I get.

"Aaah, the strange man is following me. Waddle! Waddle!"

"Oh great fowl in the skies, the birdity of it all! Why won't the bad man stop slowly chasing me?"

Mr Duck eventually remembered he could fly and did just that, to get away.

Here are some smaller birds I saw this morning, chirping away in a tree. Cute little things.

At one point, all three birds were on one branch, but before I could take the photo, they flew away...

Perhaps another time.

Trivia at the Pub (9)

For once, just about everyone got to the pub before me. Which was very very odd.

Wasn't hungry at first, though I ended up finishing half of two of my friends' meals, so I guess that counts as one proper meal. Hooray for leftovers!

Here are the sketches from the night.

A vampire James Bond. An octopus, a grandfather clock (are there such things as grandmother clocks?). Two requests, a horse eating a strawberry and a vampire cat. After drawing the vampire kitty, more blood and some sort of mouse corpse was demanded, and it was so.
Detective Turducken is from this video which I saw at an animation festival at UTS.

There was talk of geisha, so there's half a sketch. I think it was because I was fanning a friend with, well, a fan.

The last is Dianne, craving the toblerone I had just been given. To be fair, the two enormous bars of toblerone do look delicious... yum.

After this, I was too busy drinking to draw, so um.. that's it.

We came second thanks to my help with questions such as:
What is the Riddler's real name? Edward Nigma (E. Nigma).
What was Will Turner's father's name in Pirates of the Carribean? William. (Aka. Boostrap Bill).
And so forth.

Free drinks for everyone!

I saw a DUCK!

You know when you see something but you can't quite make out what it is, because it's just so far off what you're expecting your mind gets confused?

That happened this morning. At first I thought the lone duck was a branch or something. When I realised, I had to rush to get my camera out.

I kept getting closer and closer to it and taking photos, just to see how close I could get.

Not too shabby. I am like a ninja!

This is when the duck figured I was probably close enough and decided to move.

Isn't it cute as it waddles away? *waddle* *waddle*

Hey Mr Duck, you're looking the wrong way!

The only problem with seeing a duck in the morning is that there is no way the rest of your day will possibly be as awesome.

Dawn of the Cockatoo

As I ambled to work today, sore throat and nose determined to make me regret getting out of bed, legs beginning to ache as the rest of my body thought it would put its two cents in as well, I saw this fellow:

He (or she, I suppose) just appeared. I was walking, there was no cockatoo. Then there was one. Perfectly hidden by the telegraph pole, I only saw the bird when I was only one or two meters away, which was pretty cool. Normally they're in groups as well, so it was a nice chance to take photos.

I did have to actually go to work though, which meant walking until the cockatoo decided I was too close and flew away. Not that far though, just to the nearest antenna, to have a look around.

And finally, a nice profile shot.

Bye bye, lonely cockatoo. You're nice and quiet when you aren't surrounded by twenty of your friends.

Encounter in the Night

I always seem to be the one bitten by dangerous creatures of the night...

If I survive this one, I should be more careful...

Footpath cats in the Amazon!

This is what you get when animals like you. A cat coming up to you on the way to work and nuzzling your legs until you have no choice but to lean down and pat it because it's so cute. How annoying is that?! Sheesh.


Then the cat starts squirming on the footpath, scratching it's back against the pavement in the undending fight to scratch the itch that cannot be scratched. It does this just for the attention, I know it does.

Then it tries to slink off in an effort to be invisible, in the long grass. And failing. You're not very good at this camouflage thing, are you, cat?


Managing to wrestle myself away from catty cuteness, I was walking along when I suddenly found myself in the Amazon! That's right, the Amazon! Or at least, that's what it felt like when a parrot flew right past me and landed on a tree nearby. I felt the rush of air, it flew that close.


Is this not Amazonesque? I only managed to get this one photo, since it flew away before I got a chance to move around to a better vantage point.

An interesting walk to work all up. :)

Birds and the Bees

Finally had my camera again, which of course means the kookaburras know to stay away. Crafty critters. However, I did see some other nice things, even if they moved around to make it hard for me.


Me and this bee were playing hide and seek. I found her.


Some nice flowers. They don't move, which I appreciate.

And last, a cute bird whose species name escapes me completely. Cute thing though.

Trivia in the Pub (8)

Too tired to write very much about last night.


Drew some robots, Dianne tried to stab me with the knife. She's been watching a lot of True Blood lately, so it clearly has affected her mind.


This put vampires on my brain.

In actual trivia news: I won free drinks. I can either get 4 schooners of house beer or 2 glasses of house wine.

Our team also came third, so hooray, we got more drink vouchers. (Which is good because we'd just run out).

Nudes

Here are some old nudes. The quality of the pictures isn't the best, since I had to take photos instead of scanning. Even if I were to scan, the images probably wouldn't have come out so well. In any case, here we go.