Here’s a story about a cock.

Kym and Giz have some hens and a bantam cock. There’s another cock next door. Each cock makes quite a racket in the morning, so much so that George the cock has to have a blanket put over him. I assume the hens love the cock. I myself am quite fond of the cock, after all, it has quite resplendent plumage. Did you know that if you talk about the cock long enough, stupid sites like this get confused? Keep your cock under wraps, kids. Do not under any circumstances talk about the cock.

Earlier this evening I was finishing up the dishes, when one of the utensils fell off the drying rack. I caught it with my foot, setting off the safety mouse trap in the process. I figured I’d just put the trap into the cupboard and reset it later, but as I opened the cupboard I noticed the other trap was closed and upside down.

“Hrmm,” I thought, “I guess it finally snapped shut because of vibrations in the floor or something.”

I opened the trap.

Inside was a thin layer of rank-smelling fur, covered in fat maggots. God knows how long that tiny mouse has been rotting away in there without our knowledge. I threw the trap out.

The first trickle of information regarding the new iTunes Plus tracks on the iTunes Music Store is here. It’s promising, but far too vague. Great, I’m glad that Dark Side of the Moon sales are up 350% (and I helped boost this number), but I want to see the number of EMI songs sold this month - actually, a percentage increase would work if they don’t want to reveal this.

The word on the street is that the other labels are paying attention. If you buy music on the iTMS, help them get the message and try to only buy iTunes Plus songs for the next month or two. Can I recommend Sinéad O’Connor’s debut album, The Lion and the Cobra? Or how about XTC’s seminal English Settlement?

edit: Hrmm, found some numbers here.

I just uploaded a few new pics to my Flickr account, just kind of clearing the slate before we head up north (July 2nd). Frankly, I can’t wait. I haven’t had a ‘real’ holiday for years. Sure, I’ve had half a week here, or a long weekend there, but a couple of weeks away? I think the last time was in 1994, which didn’t end so well.

I also noticed that I’ve been blogging for nearly 3 years, although without a fraction of the class of Crumpet, or Vetti. I wish that was something I could improve, but I’m not sure my life is that interesting. I’m not sure how many people want to read about my day of troubleshooting a rubbish Pentium 4 system with a bad motherboard.

I turned my phone off on Saturday afternoon, because I wanted to guarantee I had two days to myself like a normal human being. I checked for messages yesterday because I simply couldn’t help it… and yep, there was a job waiting there.

Having the time off has been good - I’ve actually slept for 8 hours, plus I’ve finished my site reports, weekly timesheet and monthly reimbursement paperwork.

Also, I’ve had blog time!

I spent a few seconds this morning looking for MP3 files in my iTunes library - if it’s MP3, I haven’t paid for it. That doesn’t jive with Justin, and frankly it doesn’t please me much either - it’s just that most stuff I can’t actually find in Australia so it’s easier to download it now now omg NOW! than wait 2-3 weeks for a CD to arrive.

Ah, CDs. So quaint. I remember when they were marvels of technology.

Anyhow, I found the MP3s for Viva Voce’s ‘Lovers, Lead the Way!’ album which I actually got legitimately (thanks emusic.com for your cunning free trial), but as I loathe MP3 files, I found a secondhand copy on Amazon (it doesn’t seem to be out anymore, and it’s not on the iTMS). In doing that, I found that Viva Voce have yet another album! It’s called ‘Get Yr Blood Sucked Out’, I’ve ordered it, and here’s a song from it, the emphatically-titled We Do Not Fuck Around.

Some mongrel keyed Mopsy, and I can’t understand why.

So much for this weeks pay, I guess. Fortunately I got 29 hours this week, my record so far…

Mum called me a couple of days ago to let me know that she’s finally been retrenched by the Evil Empire (i.e. Telstra). She couldn’t be happier, she’s a little over 60 and well over the daily grind of shift work. Now she can sit back, get a puppy and a new car and tootle around the country looking at rocks or whatever old people enjoy doing.

Sorry Mum.

Fascinating, yet sad: The Washington Post conducted an experiment where they dressed one of America’s finest violinists as a busker and had him play in a train station during the morning rush hour.

And nobody cared.

I picked up the new flash yesterday. I’ve been so utterly swamped with work (doing a week’s worth of hours in three days) that I’ve barely had time to look at the manual, let alone use it.

However, this is what it looks like on the camera:

And here’s what an indoor shot can look like when you’re not using the flash built into the camera:

I bounced the flash off the roof for this one. Probably should have used a wall instead, it’s a little dark for my liking. Still, far better than the ‘deer in headlight’ look of an onboard flash, and something that I could fix in post if I really wanted to.

Notice the light in Crump’s eyes, I used the built-in catchlight for that.