A few weeks ago, some guys from work took me down to The Armory, which is basically an airsoft arena for close quarters battle. In short, its a bit like TF2, or any of those first person shooter type games, except real. Instead of playing with a screen and a headset, you don safety gear, get given a big giant (and also fake) gun and off you go.

You run around the arena and try hit the opposition. Its hard work, and painful, but an awful lot of fun. Or so I suspect. When I went I was dressed in a skirt and tights, and wasn’t brave enough to get in the arena. I shot for a bit in the range (which, once I started hitting the targets, delighted me no end). And I watched through the windows as the boys played in the arena. It wasn’t unlike watching The Ex play all his computer games, except that it was a billion times more awesome. I have alot more respect for boys that get out there and actually play in arenas like this, rather than sittin at home and playing the games over the internet.

I’m pretty keen to get involved next week, if I can. The social atmosphere was brilliant, all the guys were super nice, all decked out in camo gear and fancy masks.

I am slightly apprehensive about the mentatlity of actually SHOOTING at someone . . . its a bit different from sitting in front of a screen, cackling as you charge someone with a flamethrower. I know they have safety procedures and things so the guns can’t be mistaken as real ones, and so you can’t actually hurt anyone. If I hadn’t seen how much fun it was, if I hadn’t shot at the targets, and if I had been itching to get into the arena, I would probably turn my nose up at it.

But I did see how much fun it was, and I did shoot at the targets, and I was itching to get into the arena. I’m so going back. I’ll let you know how it goes . . .

Auckland Museum has this great initiative on, in that if you live in Auckland it’s free to go visit. So, while Liz was back we trekked up to the domain and had a look around. I totally <3 the Museum. I love wandering around the exhibitions, particularly the Maori Court section. I'm so in love with the Maori Portraits done by Goldie. Something about them seriously touches home. They are pretty brilliant.

I also get a huge kick out of the Dinosaur exhibits. I’m pretty sure they are replicas, but when your standing next them, their sheer enormity is pretty brilliant. Being able to see the difference in skeletal structure between a carnivore, a herbivore. Between a land-based dinosaur and one that swims.

Brilliant, right?

A few of us (The Second Quarter, my girl JZ, Liz and I) visited Kelly Tarltons last week, which is Auckland’s Aquarium. It’s been a while since I was there last, and its changed a fair bit. They’ve switched the way you come in (so the entrance is now the exit, and the exit the entrance) which confused me for a bit.

The tunnels are still the same, for which I’m glad. They have these giant underwater tunnels, which have glass domes and converbelts, which mean you can wander through the tanks and watch the fish and sharks and things swim above you. I have some pretty fond memories of camping overnight in the tunnels on a school trip when I was all of six years old.

The penguins are still delightful (watching them swim in and out of the water is pretty amazing) and I’d forgotten how giant the sting rays were. They’ve also added a cafe, and the interactive area I probably would have appreciated more if I was maybe 20 years younger, or had children. Still, JZ and I climbed all over the sculptures and things they had. The Second Quarter broke one of the displays demonstrating the strength of a squids sucker rings.

Generally a fun time was had. It was a pretty brilliant way to spend an afternoon.

The second crazy campaign The Yellow Pages did was The Taste of Yellow. That is to say that this guy named Josh was given a task: using only the businesses listed in the Yellow Pages, launch the worlds first chocolate bar that tastes of Yellow. He did it, he did. There are a whole bunch of videos you can watch to see what he did to get it done. Some of them are pretty hilarious.

By the time it was launched, everyone had seen the ads and heard the story. And it was stupidly hard to get your hands on a bar or twenty. By the time I managed to find a bar, most supermarkets had sold out, and people were making a killing on trademe. It was a bit of a fiasco, really.

But, I did get my hands on a bar. A guy from the office brought two into work for everyone to try. The packaging was pretty nice. Well designed and cute.

The first think you notice is the smell. It’s strong, and overpoweringly sweet. For those of us that either had kids or had worked in an ECE centre recently, it smelt a bit like playdough or plasticine. It tasted alot better than it smelt. A bit like pineapple lumps and custard and yes, a little bit like playdough. It was incredibly sweet, there was no way I’d be able to eat a whole bar.

I’d say Josh achieved his goal of making yellow chocolate taste of yellow. I think that overall it was a successful campaign, and got alot of people interested. :) Have you tried anything that’s overwhelmingly quirky lately?

I’m a web designer. I design cute websites, like loveharder.org, or custom blog designs, like justonemiss.com, and even sometimes blog headers. While there was alot of designing going on, I definitely didn’t consider myself a graphic designer. So when a Osborne Street asked me to design a poster for their Sunday Jam Sessions I did that Tall Poppy thing, and said I couldn’t. Wouldn’t. I wasn’t a graphic designer, it wouldn’t be any good. Perhaps I could TRY but they shouldn’t expect greatness.

And then I gave it a shot. And now I’m a little bit proud of what I’ve done.

Pretty, right? I still wouldn’t call myself a graphic designer, but it’s nice to know that I can produce something visually pretty if asked. :)

Last Friday was gorgeous. Like, actually. Blue skies, lots of sun, warm breeze. It was the kind of day I was ridiculously sad that I had to work. I work in air conditioned office, and it just seems SO UNFAIR that the day was that gorgeous and I couldn’t be out there enjoying it.

I’ve got this friend, Zes, who didn’t go back to work till today, and on his last free weekday he did a Zoo trip. Talk about JEALOUS! One thing I love about my friends though, is that they make the effort and are awesome. Zes sent updates as he meandered through the zoo, sending me txts and pxts as he went.

First up, Zebra’s. I requested Rhinos next, with an antedote about how I went on a Zoom tour and pet a Rhino. Sure enough, I got a pxt of a Rhino with a cute comment about how there was a kid calling it a rhino-saurus.

There were txts about the lazy cheetah’s, and the kiwi that hunted right by the glass and all sorts of cool stuff. Just like being there. Virtual tours from my desk. I’m very much in <3 with friends who make my work day go a little bit faster. :)

Last week I thought I was done with my Christmas Shopping. I congratulated myself on getting things sorted early so I didn’t have to wade through the chaos that lives in shopping malls. And then I realised that actually, I’d forgotten some people. They live overseas, see. And they had completely slipped my mind. I almost cried at the thought of fighting my way through stores to find something suitable.

And then I thought fuck it. In the day and age that we live in, it’s perfectly acceptable to shop online. And a friend of mine had recently pointed out endemicworld.com. A cute New Zealand based design store, filled with cute design and New Zealand MADE stuff!

So I poked around and with some difficulty picked a few things out (I say with difficulty, because I often forgot that I wasn’t shopping for me). They arrived on my doorstep the next morning (yay for overnight couriers!) and inside, I was surprised to see not only the purchases I’d made, but a secret santa gift and a handwritten card:

Endemic World had sent me a present too! I was their Secret Santa for the day I shopped. And I was ever so chuffed. So right on for Endemic World, who are incredibly awesome. If you’re looking for cute NZ-based design, check them out.

[disclaimer] This was post was not sponsored by endemicworld.com, they don’t know I’ve written it, and didn’t pay me to write it. They sent me an unexpected secret santa gift in the mail with a handwritten card and I got excited about it. :) [/disclaimer]

So, I posted last month about Octobers Challenge and I have to say I have so much <3 for Lucas right now for saving me from being the only one participating in this challenge last month!

And for serious, aren’t his photos awesome?

That’s Lucas being awesome, and rocking the challenges. He got up close and personal with something furry (SAVING that cute kitten (Baby Tuna) that was too weak to stand when he found it), being all educational and awesome (by signing the peace one day flag in Miri Malaysia! For serious, this is how he rolls), and the last being super helpful as an easel. An EASEL.

And right now Lucas is going ‘WTF, why I on Elly’s blog?!’ It’s because your awesome, Lucas. :P

And you make me kinda hopeful. Perhaps this month someone else will join us. Maybe there will be three or four of us. Are you keen to join?

The idea is simple. You have till the end of the month to upload three photos (just three) to the Steve’s Orienteering Challenge flickr group. That’s it. Easy, and a fun way to encourage people to get out and do something a bit random.

The Challenges this month:

1. Fake Facials
For those of you that don’t know, this month is Movember – the month where boys grow moustaches and the girls get pash rash for the sake of raising awareness and funds for Prostate Cancer.

So, take a photo of yourself with a fake mo! (This could be as simple as drawing a mo on your finger, or printing out a beard. Or you could go to the extreme and glue hair to your face. I’m just sayin’.)

2. Jump For Joy
Be airborne. Or rather, not on the ground, not on a chair, and not swinging from anything. Just jump for joy. In the air! :)

3. Feathered Flock
Find some feathered friends, and just go hang. You might want to bribe them with bread, but that’s totally up to you! Bonus points for the most birds in one photo!

Easy as, right? Everyone knows where to find ducks. Or chickens. Or other lovely feathered somethings :)

Anyway, that’s it for this month! Hope your November is wonderful, and that perhaps you’ll decide to join this month’s Orienteering Challenge! :)

Every person loves feeling like they are a little bit special. A little bit with the in-crowd, a little bit special. And as much as I say I go to these things because my best friend is in town and time with her is pretty rare (both true, so don’t discount it), we both know its a tiny bit because we like to squee that we met so and so, or whatever.

For the last four years, Liz has taken me to Armageddon. And every year, thanks to her connections with The Hub Productions we get in free, with fancy ‘Exhibitor’ badges. We usually attend the formal cocktail evening with the stars (something fans pay a ridiculous amount of money for), and sometimes we’ll have dinner with the stars + crew that The Hub bring to NZ.

(The line we didn’t wait in)

We’ll rock the expo, getting autographs and photos and whatever. We’ll visit talks, and check out stalls and hang out with The Hub’s whoever. Liz knows enough of the people who work the con to be down with the crew, and we’ll chat and hangout and generally have an awesome time.

Now, usually, I don’t know who the stars are. I might vaguely recognise them, but they aren’t usually from my shows. Or are people that I’d squee about meeting in advance. Not to say that I haven’t met some awesome people. I’ve met John Rhys-Davies (who wanted Liz and I to join a space-program thing to populate Mars). I met Tom Lenk (one of the nerds from Buffy) and Ernie Hudson (From Ghostbusters). I’ve met Kevin Weisman (aka Marshell from Alias) and Michael Winslow (who was the sound effect cop from Police Academy). All incredibly cool people, who have been so, so lovely. Tom Lenk was super into snowboarding, and Kevin Weisman introduced us to his baby daughter, and Michael Winslow took to saying my name in high pitched squeaky tone, and pretending it wasn’t him when I turned around. He was pretty awesome :)

Then there are some people I’ve met, and I actually don’t know who they are:

This is Bronson Pelletier, whose going to play a wolf in New Moon. And the other guy? I actually had to ask Liz for his name. He’s Jason Momoa. And I had to look up on imdb to find out he plays a human alien on Stargate Atlantis.

But this year? Oh, how excited I was this year. This year I met Seth Green.

SETH. GREEN.

If you don’t know who he is: educate yourself. Think Dr Evil’s son (Austin Powers) or voice of Chris on Family Guy. He was in the movie Without A Paddle (as the doctor guy who hooked up with the chick who did random things with her feet), and was Lyle in the Italian Job. And he’s the Creator of Robot Chicken! In short: all kinds of awesome is who he is. :P

I was beyond excited. I sat next to him at the cocktail party, and we chatted and oh! He’s so little and has stumpy little fingers, and smells soooo good. I was a total fan, excited to be in his presence, and that was enough for me.

For him, I get that he was turning it on for us. That for that night it was his job to meet us and make us feel all excited and whatever. That even though he was shattered (having had a conversation with his agent about all the promotional stuff he’d had to do earlier) he turned on his ‘fan’ face and made all of us fall in love with him.

Realising this (and seeing him turn himself on and off) only detracted slightly from the deal. Like I said, I’m a fan. And while usually I get to see the stars in a not-fan capacity, I couldn’t do it in this case. Because seriously? This was SETH GREEN.

How do you not love him?

Anyway, Armageddon this year was possibly the last year I’ll go. Liz is maybe bound for far away shores, and if that’s the case then it’ll be the last Armageddon she’ll do, and by proxy, me too. So we took in our last possible day at Armageddon in style.

We tried on hats, and watched talks, met people (like the Drake, the author of the comic Ninjet, check him out, for serious: ninjet.com. I thought he was pretty awesome) and wandered around the chaos that was Armageddon.

It was a good expo, this year. Yay, Geekdom! :)

Last weekend was a long weekend. That is to say that we got a glorious extra Monday off. That Monday I happened to be a Snells Beach, where friends have a cute little bach that sits right on the water.

Sunday night was filled with red wine and catching up and eating and ALOT of memories. Mostly from 3 years ago, but I don’t want to go there. On Monday things had perked up, and everything seemed a lot less dire (I suspect this is due to the lack of red wine in my system).

Anyway, Rob + John, the wonderful people that they are, took The Second Quarter, Liz and I out on the boat for some ‘it’s almost summer’ fun.

I say almost summer, because it didn’t feel like summer. It was cold, and overcast, and we were all in wetsuits and I still got blue lips in the end. But the point is, it may have been cold, but we went WAKEBOARDING, and SEA BISCUITING! (And The Second Quarter, the ski ponce that he is, also went waterskiing). We also rescued some kina before they got eaten. We’re good lovely people and all that.

It was brilliant. Really, it was. Wakeboarding is a ridiculous amount of fun, and getting up on the first try was SO BRILLIANT! And by the end of my turn I was grinning from ear to ear, and would cheer empathetically during everyone else’s go. It was a ridiculous amount of fun.

There was much cheering for falling over (or off, in the case of the sea biscuit). There was much cheering all round, really.

It was such a brilliant, brilliant way to spend an hour or two, and I was just so PUMPED after! Sure, there were sore muscles the next day (clinging to a sea-biscuit will kill your shoulders, seriously) but it seemed such a small price to pay for getting to partake in such an AWESOME sport. Seriously, check out the grins after:

I have to say, that wakeboarding? It totally made my weekend awesome. :)