I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so

I went to a work farewell for two of my work mates, Anushya and Zoya on Friday night, who have left Sydenham Library for full time work elsewhere. For something different we went to a Japanese restaurant in Moonee Ponds. Now, those of you who know me well are probably giggling away at the thought of me going to a Japanese restaurant!

Guess what? I actually really liked it!

After the initial scare of the appetiser (pictured) which resembled something you would see after a cat was sick (it was actually pickled beef, capsicum and zucchini) all was well.... And for those of you who are thinking 'So I guess you did not eat the appetiser' - WRONG! Quite a few people refused to try it, but I was feeling brave and experimental, so away I went!

For me, whenever someone said Japanese food, my mind always just assumed it would have been very similar to Chinese, had lots of fish (or even worse a little bit of humpback) and drenched in all different kinds of flavours. Japanese food I found seems to follow a very similar philosophy to Japanese interior design, where everything is minimalist and actually very simple. There was also a lot of 'non-fish' items on the menu. For example I had miso chicken, which was grilled chicken marinated in a very simple non-dominating marinate served with some plain sort of vegies.

So if you are ever looking to give Japanese a try I highly recommend the Koo Japanese Restaurant in Moonee Ponds.

See Where I Work!

As part of the job share I am doing with Christian for the development of the new library website, one of the cooler things I have been playing around with is creating interactive online panoramas.
This involves taking a whole heap of photos from the same spot and 'stitching' them all together to create one huge 360 view, then loading that picture into a web page with a java applet called PT Viewer.

Once this is loaded you get a full interactive panorama which allows you to turn around, zoom in, zoom out.... basically allowing customers to have a interactive tour of our library.

Checkout my example here.

10,000 BC

Last night I went and saw 10,000 BC. I had heard that it was a crap film... I thought very differently.

The film (obviously set in 10,000 BC) follows a young mammoth hunter, who turns into a warrior after his village is raided by another tribe and many tribe members stolen and turned into slaves. The hunter then tracks the bandits and his people through snowy mountains, lush jungle, and vast desert, all the way to Giza (Egypt) where his tribes people join many other slaves in the task of building the great pyramids.

The cinematography is visually stunning and epic on scale. The diversity of cultures you meet in the film also makes you appreciate how man-kind has evolved differently in different parts of the world.

If your going to the movies and have nothing to see, I say you should give 10,000 BC a try!