I bought this ‘Dr Ion’ bag a few years ago from the famed online seller of all things Japanese (including porn and sex toys, aw yeah), Jlist (prude-friendly version: Jbox).

I initially bought it to use as a little bag I could carry a sketchbook and some pens in, but I never really made the most of it and it’s spent the last couple of years sitting in my garage, collecting dust. Which, incidentally, is why most of this photo is greyscale – it needs a clean, in a big way!

I realised this morning that it would probably make a pretty neat little bag to carry my new camera around in, and it really is a perfect fit. Hoorah.

I’d never heard of the brand before, and haven’t seen many others using any of their products, but it’s a reasonably well-made bag. Sadly, this particularly one doesn’t appear to be available anymore. Sorry, folks!

Last night after work, I caught up with ‘Piro’, an old online>offline friend that I’ve known for about 11 years now – and in fact, it occurs to me just now that, along with RetroSuper, that might be one of my oldest online friendships. Crazy world.

Hailing from Sydney, Piro was in Melbourne this past week for the UX Australia conference. We managed to squeeze in a drink and some eats last night, which was great because I hadn’t seen her in about four years, maybe more… time has some mighty wings, that’s for sure.

We met up at Gin Palace where the organisers of the conference had thrown an open-bar for the attendees (not I, sadly!), but thanks to Piro’s grumbling tummy and a too-loud-to-catch-up atmosphere, we took off for some eats.

A new acquaintance of Piro’s led us to a place just off Tattersall’s lane, allegedly known for its badass dumplings. But, upon seeing the line, our stomachs decided we were heading elsewhere!

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Alright, so I might not have put too much thought into that title (and I may have come off sounding a little Adelaidian in the process), but ladies, you ought to get into Melbourne’s Little Salon and check out their classy wares. Not simply because my lady manages the two stores, but because you’re honestly going to find some genuinely cool items there.

Click through to catch a few shots I snapped off during a surprise attack visit this afternoon, and a few shots from a fashion book launch we ended up dropping in on, courtesy of Friedy’s good friend ‘Min’ being the book’s editor.

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I’m out too often, lately. Well, not necessarily too often, but being out as often as I have lately has meant that the nice vegies and other eats I buy for a week tends to go unused.

That means that come the Monday week after the weekend I bought it all, I’ve got a fridge and pantry full of items on their last legs.

This afternoon I cooked up some burgers that weren’t going to last much longer (I should have froze them, I know), and tonight I ended up cooking up a huge wok full of vegies – with tofu and falafel, just for kicks – before they ended up in the bin.

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On the sunniest day my fair city has seen in more than a few weeks, I ventured out to the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds with fellow nerd Liam Marcon for Manifest 2010, which is probably Australia’s premier anime convention (or ‘festival’, if you will).

It was an odd experience, to say the least. While I consider myself an anime fan, it’s been obvious to me for a long time that there’s actually very little anime that I really enjoy.

In fact, if I had to pull a percentage out of my back pocket, I’d say something like 96.7 percent of all anime released in the past 10 years has bored the living lunch right out of me.

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Yesterday morning, after completing our civic duty in this year’s national election, the good lady Friedy and I headed to Tom Phat for breakfast.

Now, I don’t live in Brunswick, but my impression of Sydney Road is based largely on driving through (as quickly as possible), and one or two stops at specific stores.

To describe the strip as a dump might be a stretch, but I’m not sure I’d consider it as charming as the locals – who’d all probably prefer to live closer to Carlton or Fitzroy – might like to think.

For that reason, Tom Phat can probably be considered something of a diamond in the rough – depending on who you ask.

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In a bid to play with my new toy some more, I jumped in the car and went for a drive to my nearest suburb still likely to have places open and lit at 9pm – Box Hill.

By the time I got there, I was feeling a bit peckish – my dinner plans were scrapped earlier in the night – and then I remembered that a friend of mine is super keen on a particular burger joint in Box Hill; one of the few non-Asian stores in Box Hill actually, haha.

This friend reckons these burgers qualify for that classic ‘unknown, unassuming burger joint that makes the best burgers ever, and most people don’t even know it exists’ status that some lucky little well-operated places manage to attain.

Jake, it was a good burger dude, but it was far from magical. You need to get out more!

A couple more shots after the jump.

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Well, hundredhandslap is back. I recently moved all of my regular blog posts from HHS to my new blog, doshio.com. When my last relationship ended, so did my regular access to Fiona’s awesome Canon 450D (which I really did hog too much of, anyway). So, without that badass camera, I figured I’d drop the photoblogging for a while.

Today, though, I went out and picked up a Panasonic GF1.

Let me say, first off, that I don’t know much about photography, either technically or artistically (other than the old adage of ‘just go with what feels right’).

But, all the same, the GF1 doesn’t seem to mind that I’m a total amateur.

The quality of shots this thing takes, without touching any settings… it’s like having the auto-blip in the Nissan 370Z’s manual transmission. I don’t need to heal-toe, this thing does it all for me.

The GF1 also shoots 720p HD video, and I made a quick (and damn boring) test video. Jump through to the rest of this post and scroll to the bottom.

To put it simply, it’s like a very expensive version of Viagra (do not consume, contact doctor if taken), ’cause I’ve had a boner since I got it.

So, HHS is back as my photoblog. Stay tuned. Click through for a few more at-home shots. They’re pretty boring, but I’ll get out soon to shoot something a little more interesting (if only to me).

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