Many who know me well will know of my strange fascination with zombies. Today I had the urge to go on a search for zombie themed wallpaper on DeviantART. Thought I’d share the best of the bunch that I found for other zombie enthusiasts

Zombie X-ing
Nice, simple and effective! It’s my current wallpaper.

http://nuked-whale.deviantart.com/art/Zombie-X-ing-119854207

Zombie Wallpaper
Much darker of a feel but really cool!

http://nintendorevolution.deviantart.com/art/Zombie-Wallpaper-95179629

Knock knock zombie apocalypse
Great concept!

http://sharpjet.deviantart.com/art/Knock-knock-zombie-apocalypse-141570547

Zombie Warning
Little disappointed it’s only available in 1024×768 but otherwise absolutely love it!

http://psylentnight.deviantart.com/art/Zombie-Warning-74882436

Survival Tracking Guide
Not totally zombie based but I thought it was hilarious.

http://beti-88.deviantart.com/art/Survival-Tracking-Guide-165350460

Dead is the New Alive
Love the colours and textures in this one.

http://asylumactas.deviantart.com/art/Dead-is-the-New-Alive-170303083

Zombie Apocalypse
Love the detail and textures in this one!

http://rubenz87.deviantart.com/art/Zombie-Apocalypse-156160207

Zombie Love
Zombies totally need love too.

http://lunaqueen333.deviantart.com/art/Zombie-Love-154134935

Wondering where to go to disable Flash in your browser? I thought I’d put together this list as a bit of a reference both for myself and for anyone else who needs it

Firefox 3

Tools > Add-ons > Find Shockwave Flash and click Disable

IE6

Tools > Manage Add-ons > Find Shockwave Flash Object > Click the Disable radio button on the bottom left

Then refresh any pages you are viewing (Press Ctrl + F5 if it doesn’t appear to have disabled Flash).

IE7

Tools > Manage Add-ons > Enable or Disable Add-ons > Find Shockwave Flash Object > Click the Disable radio button on the bottom left

Then refresh any pages you are viewing if IE7 doesn’t do this for you (Press Ctrl + F5 if it still doesn’t appear to have disabled Flash).

IE8

Tools > Manage Add-ons > Make sure the “Toolbars and Extensions” button is selected on the left > Find Shockwave Flash Object > Click the Disable button on the bottom right

Then refresh any pages you are viewing (Press Ctrl + F5 if it doesn’t appear to have disabled Flash).

Chrome

Go to chrome://plugins/ in your address bar

Find Shockwave Flash and click the Disable link underneath it (the item should go grey).

After this it seems like you need to close any tabs you want flash to be disabled in and then go to the site again in a new tab.

Opera

It seems like in Opera if you’re wanting to keep things simple, you can only disable all plugins, not just one:

Tools > Quick Preferences > Untick “Enable Plugins”

Refresh the page if the effects don’t take effect straight away.

You can disable a certain plugin using the plugin ignore file if it’s something you want to make permanent. To do that go to opera:config#Network|PluginIgnoreFile in your address bar. Find the file on your filesystem that it shows you and open it in notepad or something along those lines to edit it.

Safari for Windows

It seems like in Safari (just like Opera) if you’re wanting to keep things simple, you can only disable all plugins, not just one:

Edit > Preferences > Security tab > Untick “Enable Plugins”

About five years ago I found a pretty interesting and different interest – lucid dreaming. After watching Inception, my friends and I got onto the topic of lucid dreaming. After a pretty interesting discussion, they were quite interested in trying it out. I thought that while I could just send them a few links to various sources I used, it would be a lot more useful if I wrote up a summary for them as a bit of a beginners’ run down on the basics. Then I thought it would be a lot more useful if I put it on my blog so that others might also find use out of it. I’m also hoping that writing about it might get me back into it as well so I can start to do it again too! Also, if you haven’t seen Inception – you really need to… it was amazing.

What is lucid dreaming?

Lucid dreaming is dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming.

What is the point of it?

If you can learn to identify when you are dreaming, you can learn to gain a greater sense of clarity and control in your dreams. Imagine a world where everything is completely under your control, you can do whatever you want with no limits and no worries about consequences in real life. You can fly, fight a tiger, eat your favourite foods while gaining no weight, relax on a beach in the sun, meet the girl/guy of your dreams (literally), live out your favourite movie/TV show/book, blow up a mountain using your thoughts, make it rain chocolate, travel back in time, float around space – you can do almost anything. Not only can you do anything but it will feel totally real. Sometimes emotions and senses can even be more vivid in a dream than in reality. It is an amazing experience.

It can help with nightmares (realise you’re in a dream, take control and there’s no nightmare anymore) and you can even use lucid dreams to practice something you’re not so good at (try public speaking, try mentally preparing yourself for a stressful moment by living it out first in your dreams).

How do I do it?
For people who don’t become lucid in their dreams naturally, it takes a lot of practice and focus. When I started lucid dreaming, it took me a few weeks before I finally had one. Even then, they were very short and took time to learn to control. After a few months I lost focus with it all and stopped having them altogether. It takes a lot of work but it’s worth it!

Start a dream journal – Write down and record details your dreams somewhere, get in the habit of remembering as many dreams as you can (what’s the point of lucid dreaming if you don’t remember it in the morning?).

Find yourself some dream signs – Look through your dream journal, are there any common themes? Do you find yourself in the same place in many dreams? Do you see the same person? A common object? These are good dream signs. Keep a record of these and start to focus on whenever these things appear in your life.

Learn to do reality checks – A reality check is something you can do to find out whether you are dreaming or not. Any time you see your dream sign or for any reason think you might be dreaming, you do this reality check. My favourites are:

• Holding your nose and trying to breathe – if you can still breathe through your nose, you’re dreaming!
• Look at technology – have a look at your computer, your phone, your alarm clock, are they working like they usually would? Technology often doesn’t work as it does in reality when you’re dreaming.
• Reread something – look at your alarm clock or a book, look away and then reread it. Has the time/text on the page changed? If so, you’re dreaming!

Stay focused – keep thinking about lucid dreaming, remember to do reality checks, keep reading about it and studying it – keep the idea of lucid dreaming in your mind.

Be prepared – when you do have a lucid dream, what do you plan to do? Have an idea in mind so you’re focused and ready to give it a go.

Learn to stabilise your dreams – it’s likely that in your first few dreams, you’ll be so excited or surprised when you find out you’re dreaming that you wake up. You’ve got to learn to stay in the dream and get things clearer. A few techniques for this are:

• Spin around – not sure how this works but it does! Spin around on the spot and the dream can get clearer. You can use this technique to go somewhere else as well.
• Rub your hands together – focus on the feeling of your hands rubbing together and you’ll be drawn back into the dream

There’s so much to learn and so much to say on this topic but I’ll leave it there for now to keep things simple! A few good sites to read if you are interested are:

• Dream Views – http://www.dreamviews.com/ (has a great forum)
• The Lucidity Institute – http://lucidity.com/ (great articles here!)
• Lucid Dreaming FAQ by the Lucidity Institute – http://lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html
• LD4all – http://www.ld4all.com/guide.html (not a huge fan of the site but it could be helpful)

Loved this highlights reel… especially Grant Hill’s shot from over halfway!!!

Just to avoid cramming absolutely everything in this one blog (which already seems to jump from topic to topic each post), I’ve made a new music blog for the musical journey I’m embarking on. I’ve decided to start a bit of an experiment and listen to as many random albums and bands that I can. Just to get a bit of a break from mainstream music and broaden my musical horizons. I also thought it would be fun to blog about what I listen to and share the random thoughts that go through my mind!

It did also gave me a chance to put together a new blog design and play around a bit . Not totally happy with the design at the moment but hopefully I’ll find a way to adjust it a bit over time.

The blog is here: http://www.patrickcatanzariti.com/musicvacancy/

Any music suggestions (and I mean ANYTHING) are totally welcome. Send me an email or tweet at me.

After getting a new DSLR camera for my 21st birthday and finally being able to let the inner photographer in me roam free, I’ve spent some time taking photos around Sydney.

First was the Vivid light show/festival where they light up various buildings around Sydney with various designs. I’ve got about two photos up online from that first outing (the rest… aren’t likely to be different from what anyone else took really). The next set of photos were from my own little adventure around Sydney on Sunday.

Anyway, if you are interested, the photos are up at:
http://patrickcatanzariti.deviantart.com

I might put them up on Flickr at some point too. Or make my own gallery on this site.

Soon i’ll be talking fluent photographer and shall have a wonderful collection of photos to display

I don’t have a lot to say in this post. I’m just so proud of the Phoenix Suns, now on a 3 games to none lead against the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA playoffs. It’s first to 4 wins, so the Suns only need one more win to get into the Western Conference finals (there’s Western Conference and Eastern Conference, the finals involve the Western Conference champions versus the Eastern Conference champions).

This is all the more glorious because it is the Spurs who beat the Suns in each of their last playoff series, kicking them out of the playoffs each time. It’s so good to see my favourite team getting out there and playing some amazing basketball against the team they’ve had such bad luck with in the past!

The man of the match – Goran Dragic. He had an absolutely amazing game with 23 points in the fourth quarter! Here’s the highlights:

I was just randomly looking around YouTube for some music to listen to and I stumbled upon “On The Rocks”, who according to their website are “the University of Oregon’s premiere all male a capella ensemble”. After watching quite a few of their videos I have to say, they are pretty good!

Looking into it a bit further, I discovered a whole a capella university thing with hundreds of these groups in universities all around America. America really does seem to know how to make university awesome fun…

My favourite so far of the “On The Rocks” performances is definitely this video in which they Rick Roll the NYC Subway:

The first video I saw of theirs which was also pretty good was their cover of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”:

Here’s another group called Discord from the University of Pennsylvania singing Everything by Michael Bublé:

Overall I’m pretty impressed. I love finding people making music through talent and great voices rather than auto tune and digital touch ups.

Reward for those making it to the end of the post – UC Santa Cruz sing “I’m on a Boat” (for those who’ve never seen the original clip – it is hilarious):

Noticed this on the TV Tonight article about the cancellation

Channel Ten have had way too many mentions on this blog already but they have really really frustrated me now.

Here are the stages leading up to my frustration (all dates approximate from post dates on TV Tonight):

• Sept 11, 2009 – Channel Ten announced its return.
• Sept 16, 2009 – Changed their mind.
• Dec 16, 2009 – Return for season 5 on Ten announced.
• Dec 21, 2009 – Returned on Channel 10 during the non-ratings Christmas period.
• Dec 30, 2009 – Removed again after poor ratings in the non-ratings period.
• Jan 8, 2010 – It is reported in new timeshifting figures that Supernatural is one of the top shows Australians are recording and watching later.
• Feb 17, 2010 – Announced that Supernatural is renewed in America for a sixth season with the creator stating fans are “one of the most loyal audiences of any show on television and does heroic work in a perennially tough time period.”
• March 29th, 2010 – Supernatural returns on Ten.
• April 12th, 2010 – Supernatural’s removal is announced again due to poor ratings after episode 9 aired. Channel Ten say only that it will return “later in the year”.

After finally putting Supernatural back on, Channel Ten have taken it off once again after only 3 episodes. Meanwhile the show continues without any issues in America and for all of those downloading it off the net. Channel Ten are up to episode 9 while America are up to episode 17 (18 this week).

People watch Supernatural. I don’t care what the ratings say, if a channel truly cares about its audience it would leave shows on for the whole season and not keep taking them on and off. Sure, other shows get huge ratings which surpass Supernatural’s quite easily but who is to say the measurement of the ratings is truly accurate? Every time I mention Supernatural I find people saying they are fans of the show.

There is talk of Supernatural appearing on Channel Ten’s new channel later in the year. Honestly, I think that isn’t the way to treat viewers. Put it on for fans to watch now before the season finishes in America. If the proper method of getting the series is also the most unpleasant and difficult way to watch it, why wouldn’t people just watch it on the internet?

I’ve started to get in the habit of going onto Omegle, it’s a text-based chat roulette. It connects you randomly to someone else and you start chatting with them. I’ve pretty much gotten into the habit of going on there and messing with people. Having a bit of fun really. I have had some really good normal conversations too but sometimes it’s fun to just be as random as possible.

It can get quite entertaining, so I thought I’d start posting the best bits on my blog. Then I thought I’d put it in a separate section, just so it doesn’t crowd this main blog. I’d also like to avoid looking totally insane so I prefer to hide it within a link.

Enjoy – The Insanity and Randomness section (it’s also a category on the right).