The main reason that I didn't make it to the Iron Heart party this year was because I got myself a dog. This is Disco, he's a Peruvian Inca Orchid.
He's currently about four months old, and probably about the size of a Whippet. Like his owner, he's also completely bald.
This is a Kookaburra. They're a relative of the Kingfisher that's native to Australia, and they're about the size of a crow.
They're hunters, and I saw one today that had caught a small snake. That's the large worm in its beak. It's not a great photo, as I snapped it with my phone on maximum zoom.
The Aurora Australis was visible from outside my house this evening.
Continuing the theme of clean and dirty, here is Disco on Sunday afternoon posing after winning Best of Breed at the Royal Sydney show. I should cheapen the victory by pointing out that our rival failed to turn up, after she unfortunately injured her knee. But the advantage of a rare breed dog is that it is likely to win its class by default.
And here he is on Monday morning after he spent an hour chasing a Pitbull and a sheep around a small farm on the outskirts of Sydney. It was probably the highlight of his weekend.
Disco got a lot of attention at the show. I probably had to explain what a Peruvian Hairless was hundreds of times over the two days, because it's a fairly unique breed. Well, except for the Xoloitzcuintli who were further down the aisle...
I've still got the Mountain Parka, and occasionally wear it. Here it is being modelled with Flash, who I was walking at the Greyhound Adoption Programme on Saturday.
Three rare breeds that you probably haven't met in one photo. From left-to-right: Disco, a Peruvian Hairless or Peruvian Inca Orchid; Pacino, a Cirneco dell'Etna; Farourk, a Sloughi.
Dante from Pixar's Coco and my dog Disco bear a striking resemblance.
Dante is a Xoloitzcuintli whilst Disco is a Peruvian Hairless or Peruvian Inca Orchid.
There's an area of native bush or woodland in the park near where I live, and there's some wildlife that frequents it.
Yesterday I saw a couple of older gentlemen on the bridge across a creek that runs through it. It turns out that they were watching a Platypus. It climbed out onto a log, and I got a rather poor photograph with my phone's camera.
The sighting came about half-an-hour after I'd been verbally abused by a woman for having my dog off-leash in an off-leash area...
I saw an Echidna back in December. They're a spiked marsupial that resembles a Hedgehog or Porcupine.
I've seen a couple of Kangaroos, and several snakes. I don't have any pictures of them, because I'm normally trying to stop my dog from sniffing them or following them into the undergrowth.
@neph93 I'm glad to hear that the men in white coats have come for you Norwegian health care system is taking care of you.
Incidentally, ADHD means that you're neurodivergent, though I suspect that you'll prefer the appellation that a friend came up with: Neurodeviant.
(But he read way too much Nemesis the Warlock at an impressionable age...)
As someone whose brain is also not running the standard wiring, I would agree that knowing the underlying causes will help in managing it, and also finding coping strategies.
I watched the AMC Interview with the Vampire series over the last week or two and enjoyed it.
The show is a cover version or remix of the original novel: Louis is a Creole pimp at the turn of the twentieth century, rather than being a white plantation owner a hundred or more years earlier; Claudia is older and black; and Daniel Molloy, the interviewer, is aged up and gives off definite Anthony Bourdain vibes, whereas the original could be replaced by "an Anderson Cooper cardboard cutout" according to one website I saw.
I think that it's cleverer than the books. There's a line in "The Vampire Lestat" where Lestat accuses Louis of twisting the story to suit an agenda, but the series takes this idea of unreliable narrators and runs with it as a more central theme.
I went so see a fascinating talk by Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid, Death Stranding) and George Miller (Mad Max, Happy Feet) at the Sydney Film Festival a couple of months ago. If you want to catch the re-run, it's now on YouTube.
There are some other photos on the Carryology Facebook page that show the Fujin as being less shiny. Apparently it picked up reflections from the studio lights, and it's more matte in real life.
I'm not sure if this is damage control, but the shiny aesthetic didn't appeal to a lot of people.
The weight is also 3.44 lbs or 1.56 kg, so slightly heavier than the base Archeon 30.
@mclaincausey it's also a thirty-litre pack, whereas most of the collaborations are around twenty to twenty-five, which makes it more useful for travel.
I'm curious to see what it ends up weighing. The base Archeon 30 is 3 lbs, and the Fujin is made of a lightweight fabric, but the Carryology designers have added features, so...
I agree that the black is very shiny.
I probably won't get one.
@Steve I forgot to reply to this a few days ago, but the collar looks great.
I would suggest that @Lynne looks into Martingale collars too, but they're more complicated (there are patterns on the web), and I'm not sure if they'd work with the heavier denim that IH uses.
There's an area of native bush or woodland in the park near where I live, and there's some wildlife that frequents it.
Yesterday I saw a couple of older gentlemen on the bridge across a creek that runs through it. It turns out that they were watching a Platypus. It climbed out onto a log, and I got a rather poor photograph with my phone's camera.
The sighting came about half-an-hour after I'd been verbally abused by a woman for having my dog off-leash in an off-leash area...
I saw an Echidna back in December. They're a spiked marsupial that resembles a Hedgehog or Porcupine.
I've seen a couple of Kangaroos, and several snakes. I don't have any pictures of them, because I'm normally trying to stop my dog from sniffing them or following them into the undergrowth.
If anyone is curious, the Matador X Carryology collaboration sold out pretty quickly. There was stock left about twenty minutes after it went live, but I didn't feel the need to drop $600 on the bundle...
@Anesthetist I have two rucksacks, my old Verbockel and a Loyal Stricklin, and I consider that too many! 
I'm tempted by the Matador collaboration too, but I'm not sure if I'll get one.
@Anesthetist the write-up on Carryology said that the new version has a mesh back. This was present on the first version but absent from the second. I don't know how breathable it will be.
@mclaincausey Taylor Welden posted prices and specs for the new Matador X Carryology collaboration to Facebook.
EDX ULTRA Backpack
Volume: 22 liters
Weight: 18oz (520g)
Dimensions: 7.8 x 10.8 x 17.9in (20 x 27 x 45cm)
$260
EDX ULTRA Messenger
Volume: 10 liters
Weight: 16oz (450g)
Dimensions: 5.5 x 11 x 16.9in (14 x 28 x 43cm)
$210
EDX ULTRA Sling
Volume: 2 liters
Weight: 8oz (230g)
Dimensions: 3.3 x 5.6 x 10.9in (8 x 14 x 28cm)
$150
@Anesthetist your Alpine Luddites pack looks lovely.
