reports

Running report: I can run for 28 minutes without stopping. I’m at run 3 of week 8 of the c25k. I am badass. I am considering some sort of fun run situation.

DJing report: went to BBS and DJed. DJing for blues dancers is a bit boring. Blues dancing events are a bit boring. Having said that, I had a very good time. For my money (and it was), BBS offers the most interesting bands and venues at any Australian dance event. G$ has some great photos here. That’s one of his there with this post.
My DJing was ok, and I think I did a pretty good job on the… Sunday night I think it was. On the whole I didn’t hear a whole lot of really inspiring DJing over the weekend. Most of the sets seem to lack coherency or flow. And they tended to be really low energy. The low energy is a real suck at an entire weekend of blues – you really need to keep the energy up there so people dance. One exception was Chris Haarm, who did some really nice work warming the room on the Friday night. I think his set was my favourite.
The bands, though, ROCKED. And that’s how it should be.
I don’t think I’ll bother with another blues weekend. I ended up going for a run on the Sunday because I didn’t feel like I’d had enough exercise. And that’s just wrong for an exchange.
Learnz report: I am working my way through this pgrad diploma. It’s really hard not directing your own learnz. I don’t like waiting for someone else to decide when I’m ready for the next bit of learn. I also much prefer following my own interests rather than having to follow someone else’s curriculum. Remind me to talk a bit about this more later on.
Intertubes report: I have neglected this blog for twitter. And my learnz.
That’s it.

“Open the pod bay doors, Hal.”

I’ve finally managed to take some dodgy photos of the UTS tower building on my phone. They’re not very good, I’m afraid. I’ll need to take some more. There are more pics on my flickr page, and I’ll try to get some more tonight.
This is a little film I made by accident. I’m a bit snuffly and sighy – I’m pretty snotty atm, so the sound effects are a bit gross.
The Tower building at UTS is a really good example of brutalism. Brutalism apparently refers to the use of raw concrete and materials, but the more usual connotations do seem to apply.
The building is tall and a bit of a bunker. There are fabulous views from all windows, but most of the windows in my lecture rooms are too tall for me to see out of. And too narrow for proper panoramas.
I didn’t realise I was making a movie – I thought I was just taking photos. But at least you get to see the BRIGHT YELLOW hand rails, the curved corners and rounded door corners. This is all in the stair well.
The ceilings seem a little too low and the corridors a little too narrow in this building. I think it’s because it was built in the 60s or 70s (I’m not sure when), and they used slightly smaller proportions for smaller people… well, that’s what happened in our flat. Lower sinks and so on. But I think that this might also be a deliberate design feature in the tower building. It makes the building feel as though you’re in a space ship. The bright green doors contrast strangely with the raw concrete and ‘natural’ colours. It’s all very strange. I am particularly fond of the rounded corners on the doors.
That is one big sigh.

c25k: wk6, run3

distance: 4.12 km, time: 00:35, pace: 08:30, calories: 454, effort: 5/5
25mins without stopping was hard. Hills are really hard – this was much easier on the flat. I had to pause for 2secs to fix my shoelace once (too tight and hurting my foot). But I got all the way through. I’d repeat this run if wk7 run1 wasn’t the same thing.
But I’m feeling pretty good. Tired, but good.
cloudy, humid