Author: derek

Movember

November 17, 2008 /

Captain MovemberDuring Movember (the month formerly known as November) I’ve shaved my beard and I’m sporting a beautifully manicured Mo. Yes, every day Joy has to wake up next to a man with a Mo, and it’s all about tackling men’s health issues and being proactive in the fight against men’s depression and prostate cancer.  But the best thing is that I get to pretend to be Errol Flynn for an entire month!!

Did you know:

Depression affects 1 in 6 men….most don’t seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.

Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer – equivalent to the number of women who will die from breast cancer annually.

To donate to my Mo you can either:

  1. Click this link https://www.movember.com/au/donate/donate-details.php?action=sponsorlink&rego=1853621&country=au and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account, or
  2. Write a cheque payable to ‘Movember Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number 1853621 and mailing it to:

Movember Foundation
PO Box 292
Prahran VIC 3181

Remember, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.

The money raised by Movember is used to raise awareness of men’s health issues and donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue – the national depression initiative. The PCFA and beyondblue will use the funds to fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and depression.

For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the details at: [ Fundraising Outcomes ].
Movember culminates at the end of month Gala Partés. If you would like to be part of this great night you’ll need to purchase a [ Gala Parté Ticket ].

More information is available at http://au.movember.com/.
Thanks everyone, any donations no matter how small will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers
Derek

Meet Arthur!

March 23, 2008 /

Joy and I welcomed a new member into our family yesterday. Arty is a 3 year old staffy x kelpie with an inexhaustible appetite for playing fetch. He is named in honour of Arthur C. Clarke who passed away last week. In case you are wondering, Azba has decided for us that the C stands for Cromwell.
Arty2
We picked him up at the RSPCA shelter where he has been since his former owner moved house and decided not to take him with them. How anyone could abandon such a sweet dog we’ll never know!

Apart from possessing a rather disgusting case of kennel cough (suffice to say he is staying outside until he stops hacking up phlegm) he is settling into Ferndale nicely.

His favourite pastimes include playing fetch, tug-o-war, sticking his head out of the car window, leaving piles of phlegm around the patio and coughing at the neighbour’s yappie dogs.

Arty2 Arty3

He is also fairly well trained already, obliging our commands to sit, stay or wait to be fed. He even craps in the garden bed and not on the lawn.

My divorce present

February 2, 2007 /

During the week a few of my mates took me out to Little Creatures to celebrate/commiserate the finalisation of my divorce. Good times!

It seems that instead of me having to give back the BBQ they gave me as a wedding present, they pitched in and got me a divorce present. You really can’t go wrong with mates like that! So thanks to Az, Andy, Luke, Brooke and Alan for the fantastic gift, the first results of which can be seen below.

So what was the gift? A Wacom Intuous3 graphics tablet for making proper digital art. I’ve been eyeing one off for a long time but couldn’t justify the expense on a hobby.

Below is the result of my first night of playing around and learning to use the tablet. So far I’ve found two things: it speeds up the existing work I could do with a mouse (mostly bezier curves in Inkscape) by at least double; and it allows freehand sketching and painting that was impossible before with a mouse.

I think I’m going to get a lot of use out of this!

This is an attempted self portrait, drawn using the tablet and Corel Painter. The (virtual) media used is a 2B pencil and a dry-brush watercolour. Click the image for a larger version.

 

Some Sketches

November 8, 2006 /

In a moment of mental clarity I once vowed never to write a personal blog and have until this day remained true.

But I now feel the need to supply the good readers of this site with a respite from descriptions of fishing that only serve to remind us of how non-existent the fishing is wherever we are, and the ensuing recipes reminding us of the extortion we would have to face at the local shops to be able to eat fish on a regular basis.

So my contribution is a couple of pencil sketches that I’ve done recently.

The first is a sketch of my friend Brooke playing with a ‘curdled’ soy mocha at the great Yahava coffee works in Margaret River. The second is my girlfriend Joy being supported by a vintage car outside the metallic oasis that is the Colonial Brewery, also in Margs.

Click the thumbnails to see larger versions.

Both images were sketched with (mainly) a mechanical lead pencil.

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