by Roy Blumenthal on August 31, 2006
Service: * * * *
Food: * * * *
Ambience: * * * *
Babe Count: * * * * *
Phone: +27 11 646 8639
I’ve been strolling up and down Tyrone Avenue for the last hour or so, seeing what there is to see. Unfortunately, I’ve got my leather satchel slung over my shoulder. And it’s damned heavy. Cos inside it is my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc and various other writing stuff.
The Toshiba is NOT a light machine. But heck, it really does what I need it to do.
I go into Scusi.
A waiter greets me warmly, and offers to find a table for me. They look full. Lunchtime full, and it’s only noon.
I say, ‘If it’s possible, I need to sit near a plug point, for my computer.’ I heft my bag, and he nods.
‘Do you mind sitting in the back?’
‘I don’t mind sitting in the kitchen, if there’s a plug point.’
He shows me to a table. A biggggg one. Which is great. Cos I like to spread out.
The manageress, a darkly pretty brunette with curves, comes to my table as I’m cable-locking my machine to the table. She says, ‘I have to apologise… our WIFI isn’t up and running right now. We’ve exceeded our bandwidth cap, and they’re busy recharging.’
‘How much do you charge for your WIFI?’ I ask.
She says, ‘It’s free. It’s just a service we provide for our customers.’
I order a decaff cappuccino.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of my characteristic ‘Coffee-Shop Schmuck’ coffee-shop reviews. I just can’t resist this one, cos the cappuccinos are exceptionally good.
The flavour on this one is reallllly worth writing home about. I’m pretty sure most caffeine abusers wouldn’t be able to tell that this is a decaff one. And I’m not jolting about, so I know they haven’t slipped me a mickey.
I order lunch. It arrives. It’s butternut ravioli in creamy napolitana sauce. And it’s superb. Delicious. Real value for money at only R40 for a generous portion.
Last night I rented the second disc of season 2 of DEADWOOD. And watched two episodes. Yeeks. I think it’s safe to say that DEADWOOD has completely blown my mind.
One of the babes sitting at the big table just to my left has been giving me the eye. And she looks a heck of a lot like the cute little blonde prostitute in DEADWOOD. The new one. The one who’s been brought in to ‘deal with’ the needs of the mysterious mining-scout.
So now, it’s off to therapy. To tell my shrink, Zahava, all about how I’m coping with not being in a relationship with ‘S’. And to find out from her what I need to do to attract wholesome gals.
by Roy Blumenthal on August 29, 2006
When I submitted my story about Flickr silencing artists to DIGG, one of the replies I got was from Thomas Hawk at Zooomr.
Here’s his message:
Hey feel free to send your art to Zooomr. We are happy to have both you and your artwork and will not Nipsa you. If you are also a blogger we are giving free pro accounts for bloggers.
http://blog.zooomr.com/2006/07/20/more-love-for-bloggers-25gb-free-pro-accounts/
So I’m giving Zooomr a try. And using this blog post to take advantage of the free Pro account they’re offering to bloggers.
From what I’ve seen of the site, it’s a kind of a pared down Flickr. Doesn’t seem to have any communities, nor any way to make sets. But I’m open to correction. That’s really just a first impression.
I must say, if it’s just hosting I want, Flickr kinda does the trick. It’s more the community aspect of it that excites me about Flickr, and which disappoints me bitterly about being made invisible to people.
But who knows? Zooomr is in Beta at the moment, and things might change.
This drawing is one of my early ones on my palmtop. It was made using Mobile Atelier on an iPAQ 2210 with me standing listening to music at CD Wherehouse in Rosebank.
[UPDATE:] I’ve just been looking around the Zooomr site, and found something called ‘Smart Sets’. I’m not sure yet, but I THINK this might be the same as ‘Sets’ on Flickr. But it uses a different creation system. This one allows you to create an automatic set using various criteria. For instance, ‘This set must include any tag that matches this criterion… (etcetera).’
So, if you’re a disciplined tagger, that’ll be good for you.
There’s another feature called ‘Portals’ which I haven’t investigated yet. But it seems to be a collection of pics to do with some or other topic you stipulate.
by Roy Blumenthal on August 26, 2006
This week’s Illustration Friday topic is ‘Run’.
I haven’t been painting for a little while, cos I’ve been on a hectic writing deadline for a piece of corporate video I was asked to script-doctor in a rush. It turned out to be WAY more than script doctoring. And it’s still not over. Sheeeeesh.
I painted this one a little more than a month ago, when ‘S’ and I were first breaking up. This was in the lull that we were calling ‘a break’.
I was feeling terrible at the time, and so i made this pessimistic painting of a dude fleeing from warmth and love, at the same time avoiding being burnt alive. Three guesses who the dude is.
Since then, I’ve decided that part of what i want in the world is the possibility of me being increasingly open to RECEIVING love from a love- and life-partner. (In the past, I’ve been a bit too much of a love-giver, which has left my love-partners feeling that I’m not able to receive anything from them. I want this to shift. I want a partnership.)
Before I say cheers for the week, please go to the DIGG site and vote for my article trying to pressure Flickr into relaxing their absurd policy of making artists invisible to searches on the site.
With enough DIGG votes, the story will make it to the attention of someone in command at Flickr, and maybe we’ll see some rational action from them. Thanks!
This painting was made using ArtRage 2.11 on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.
